Shinde seeks Rs 1,000 cr central aid

The Government of Maharashra, on Friday, sought Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) assistance from the Centre to tide over its immediate financial problems.

Sushilkumar Shinde, who recently took over as the chief minister, made the plea during a meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The CM also assured the Centre of maintaining strict fiscal discipline to overcome the situation caused by massive debts of Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion).

In his first meeting with Vajpayee after becoming the chief minister, Shinde in a memorandum sought the assistance either in the form of a grant or a long-term loan.

Shinde, who also met Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, later told reporters that he requested Singh to defer the payment of some loans and wanted a softer interest regime.

At present, Maharashtra has to repay annually Rs 6800 crore (Rs 68 billion), including Rs 5600 crore (Rs 56 billion) as interest.

The chief minister said Singh assured him to give a "sympathetic look" to Maharashtra's request and has set up a committee of senior officials headed by the finance secretary to take a decision on the issue within a week.

Shinde, who also met Vijay Kelkar, advisor to the finance minister, said the Centre appeared satisfied over the strict financial measures taken by his government and assured all help to it.

Regretting the central team's finding that there was no drought in the state, he said the assistance of Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) to tackle the situation was "too meager".