The Council of Ministers approve this Friday the aid for irrigation water - The Province
TheMinister councilwill approve this Fridayroyal decreefor the transfer of the eight million euros to lower the extra cost paid by Canarian farmers for thedesalinationand water extraction from wells and galleries. The sector is now waiting to know the details of that approval to decide whether or not to revoke themanifestationscheduled for April 5 due to the delay in the arrival of this item, included in the 2018 budgets.
The general secretary ofPSOE,Ángel Víctor Torres, stressed that it is a "magnificent news" that island farmers can count on subsidies that lighten the economic outlay they have to make to irrigate their crops. However, the candidate for the presidency of the Canarian Government also demanded the regional executive "diligence" when transferring funds to the field, criticizing that more than a year after receiving the six million for agricultural water corresponding to the 2017 accounts, the sector has not yet received the money.
Torres said that the administrative procedures are "very fast" by the central government, so if the money takes to arrive "few weeks", the regional government will be, he said, who has to ask for explanations and speed. In his opinion, the departure of tractors and livestock to the streets of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife on April 5 has no meaning because the central government and the PSOE have kept their word. "We said in December that this money would come to the Canary Islands, yes or yes, that we would be at the side of the farmers without any doubt," he said. For the leader of the Canarian Socialists, the only reason for the protest to be maintained is to require the regional executive to deposit the funds in thefield.
Sources of the Association of Farmers and Cattlemen of the Canary Islands (Asaga Canarias) indicate that, at the moment, they prefer not to pronounce on the desconvocatoria of the manifestation because they want to know first the terms with which the royal decree will be approved. Thedraftcontained, in his opinion, a series of "anomalies" that had to be corrected. Asaga denounces, for example, that if the document goes ahead with the conditions initially contemplated, theGovernment of the Canary Islandswill have to advance the game of eight million. Something that, in his view, is "unacceptable" because it would further delay the convocation and resolution of aid.
Torres played down the fact that the announcement of the approval of the royal decree in the Council of Ministers is made through the party and not through the Government Delegation. The general secretary of the Canary PSOE stressed that both are "perfectly coordinated" and that it is secondary who makes known the approval. "Farmers want this to be approved," he pointed out.
