‘Will return UK aid if it’s cut’
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that India will prefer to voluntarily surrender the grant it receives from United Kingdom if the British government decided on cutting it. He said that New Delhi has “made it clear” to the Cameron administration that “we will voluntarily surrender” aid should the UK decide to cut it.
India’s stand was made clear during the recent visit of the British Prime Minister and the UK government was asked to give it prior information on any decision to cut the aid. “We don’t require the aid... we will voluntarily surrender it,” he said.
The new government in the UK has commissioned a review of each of their bilateral aid programmes being implemented by the department for international development (DFID) with recipient countries globally to determine where UK resources are most needed. “The status/findings of the review of the UK government has not yet been communicated,” he said. The UK aid is being received for health, education and poverty alleviation programmes in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
During Question Hour, civil aviation minister Praful Patel refuted allegations that bad quality food was being served to passengers on Air India aircraft. He also maintained that strict action will be taken against all those found guilty of serving bad quality food. “The airlines have received 41 complaints and these are being investigated by the respective departments for remedial action,” he said replying to questions in the Rajya Sabha.
Mr Patel said that food provided by Air India on board is from the reputed flight kitchens and is comparable with every other airline in the industry.
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