JAIPUR: Chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Sunday demanded Centre to declare the proposed Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), a project of national importance.The detailed project report of the ERCP has got in principle approval from the central water commission and the declaring it a national project will expedite its work. She said while raising critical water problems of the state at a Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi , at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on Sunday.“Considering the water scarcity in the state, the Centre should provide special assistance and declare proposed ERCP a project of national importance, which will solve drinking and irrigation water needs of 13 districts of the state,” she said in a statement.Raje said that water availability and its quality are major problems in Rajasthan. Out of the total fluoride water affected population in the country, 53% are in Rajasthan so Centre should bear 50% of the cost incurred on surface water supply projects.She further said land-holding limit of two hectares for agriculture input subsidy under the SDRF norms should be relaxed for Rajasthan because in several districts of the state crop production was low, even if the land holdings were big. Also, the large tracks of agriculture lands were infertile. Therefore, considering these special geographical conditions, the SDRF norms should be suitably amended to raise the limit of land-holding to five hectares for agriculture input subsidy.Raje also said 8 to 10 districts in Rajasthan were perpetually facing drought conditions. For such a situation, a high-powered committee of the union government decided the amount of agriculture input subsidy on the basis of the number of farmers as per the Agriculture Census 2010.This number being less than the actual number of farmers as on date, the relief under this scheme was not adequate. Thus, the sanction of amount should be given on the basis of actual number of farmers and the affected areas. Also, she asked support to the cattle in Gaushalas be increased by the centre institutionally.

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