Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot has challenged Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's allegation of the Centre discriminating against the State. The Central allocation to Rajasthan during the past four years had been more than at any time in the past, he said. "The State never had it so good,' Mr. Gehlot said reacting to reports that the Centre had rejected Ms. Raje's appeal to include frost and other cold weather conditions for compensation under the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF). "In fact, her approaching Home Minister Shivraj Patil with the demand was meaningless as the Finance Commission sets the norms for CRF,' he added. Local newspapers here had reported the Centre rejecting a demand from Ms. Raje for changes in the CRF norms with a suggestion that the State could place the matter before the 13th Finance Commission. The Chief Minister had made the demand in a letter written to Mr. Patil saying that farmers in 22 districts of the State had suffered a total loss of Rs.1,000 crore due to frost and extreme weather conditions. The treasury benches had also passed a resolution in the Assembly on the issue. "It is not due to dearth of money that relief is not reaching the affected farmers. The available funds are not utilised properly,' Mr. Gehlot said. Comparing the funds made available by the National Democratic Alliance government to the previous government headed by him , Mr. Gehlot said against a Central allocation of Rs.3,000 crore under rural development during the first four years, this government got Rs.9,000 crores under the same head so far. As for the CRF norms, Mr. Gehlot said there were clear-cut guidelines regarding the use of CRF and NCCF and there was no scope for any confusion.

People in Kapurdi hamlet, some 30 km from Rajasthan's Barmer town, are unusually suspicious of strangers. They stop and question every outsider driving through the area. What is making them so wary

About 8,000 ha in the restricted area along the India-Pakistan border has been sold to unknown buyers from across the country in the past five years. The bought land in Barmer and Jaisalmer districts belongs to the residents of the area and the Border Security Force. The deals were struck through agents in Jaisalmer and the buyers are listed from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, among other places. But their addresses and names are incomplete.

An empowered committee of secretaries (ECS) has cleared Cairn India's proposal to recover the cost of the $700-million pipeline from its Rajasthan fields to the Gujarat coast through sale of crude oil from the field. "The ECS has allowed the pipeline cost to be included in the field development cost of the Rajasthan field,' said a senior government official. The ECS decision is likely to go to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for final clearance. Cairn is laying a pre-heated 585-km pipeline to transport its "waxy' crude oil from Barmer in Rajasthan to Salaya in Gujarat from where it will be transported to various refineries. The government allows a company to recover the investment in developing an oil or a gas field through oil sales. Once the company has recovered the costs, the government starts taking a share of the profits from oil sales. The field extends to the point of delivery of oil. The ECS decision will shift the point of delivery from Rajasthan to the Gujarat coast. A Cairn executive said they had not received the final word from the government. He added that all major contracts for laying the pipeline and developing the field had been awarded. "We remain committed to producing oil from Rajasthan in the second half of 2009,' the official said. The pre-heated pipeline became necessary after . Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), the official buyer of the crude, said it could take only around 1 million tonne (mt) out of the projected 7.5 mt output. The oil has to be transported through a heated pipeline as this "waxy' oil coagulates at normal temperatures.

Seeking relief: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi listens to the grievances of farmers from Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra at her residence in New Delhi on Thursday. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday assured delegations of farmers from Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra that she would convey their budgetary demands to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. The delegations sought waiver of farmers' debts, reduction in interest rates on loans, remunerative prices for farm produce, health insurance for farm families and crop insurance. They highlighted the high costs of inputs, crop losses on account of calamities (Rajasthan delegation spoke about the heavy damage to mustard crop from frost), lack of adequate power and poor quality of seeds. Among those who formed part of the delegations were S.S. Surjewala, Ashok Gehlot and Mukul Wasnik. On Friday, farmers' representatives have convened an emergency meeting of the National Council of the organisation of farmers and farm labour to discuss the financial and social problems of farmers. They will finalise a charter of demands to be sent to the Prime Minister.

Even as the Congress is battling the BJP Government within the State Assembly and outside over the "inadequate' relief package for farmers affected by the frost and extreme cold conditions in Rajasthan, the party is leading a large group of the victims this Thursday to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. The party's strategy seemingly is to extract some concrete announcements from the Centre in favour of the farmers in general and the frost-hit in particular.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has termed the Rajasthan Government's relief package for farmers affected by frost and extreme weather conditions as "grossly inadequate'. Even while asking the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre to include crop-based catastrophes eligible for compensation under the Calamity Relief Fund, the party has decided to start district-wise protests against the inadequate relief.

The power shortage in Rajasthan touched the level of 1.25 crore units a day following the closure of fifth unit of the Kota thermal power plant due to a technical snag. The unit is not likely to restart before the next three days. The State is already facing a severe power crisis due to non-availability of electricity from six Central power projects and a leakage in the re-heater tube of Giral lignite thermal power plant in Barmer district.

The Rajasthan Government has announced a Rs. 126-crore relief package for the State's farmers who have suffered damage to their crops recently due to frost, hailstorm and cold wave conditions. The package, coming after an acrimonious political exchange between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress over who should compensate the farmer, earmarks Rs. 101 crore for farm subsidies, Rs. 15 crore for waiving four months electricity bill to small and marginal farmers and Rs. 10 crore for waiving the water cess.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Tuesday called upon the Centre to include "frost' and "cold wave' in the notified disaster list of the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and sought prompt disbursal of financial assistance to the affected farmers in the State. Ms. Raje, who met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil at his North Block office in New Delhi, pointed out that the cold wave sweeping North India had severely damaged rabi crop in many districts of Rajasthan and affected agricultural economy. Ms.