Virbhadra meets PM asks for pending rain damage aid

Shimla: Some five months after very heavy monsoon rain wreaked havoc in Himachal Pradesh’s tribal Kinnaur district , the hill state is yet to receive financial help it requested from the Centre .

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday met prime minister Manmohan Singh and reminded him that the state is still waiting for Rs 1972 crore requested under national disaster response fund .

The rains in mid June killed 69 people and 24,247 animals besides heavy damage to roads , houses and property .Most of the damage was confined to Kinnaur.

The chief minister also requested the prime minister to restore the special industrial package to the state till 2020 to speed up industrialisation in the state .

He said 16,500 industrial units with a proposed investment of Rs 48,830 crore have been approved between 2003 to March 2013 . But only 9353 units have been set up so far .

He demanded sanction of investment subsidy at the rate of 15 per cent and income tax and central excise duty exemption for 5 years and 10 years till the year 2020.