After being in pressure for a couple of weeks, the center finally releases funds for flood relief work in Karnataka. The government on Friday approved the release of Rs 1200 crore to Karnataka as flood relief assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). This decision came in when Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the ongoing rescue and relief work of all the flood-affected regions. Along with Karnataka, the state of Bihar also gets a sum of Rs 400 crore for the relief work.
Center finally releases funds for Karnataka
Keeping in view the flood situation and the fund positions in the State Disaster Relief Fund accounts of Bihar and Karnataka, Shah has approved the advance release of Rs 400 Crore to Bihar and R 1,200 crore to Karnataka from the National Disaster Relief, a statement from the government said.
“We have already released as much as 2,500 crores for infrastructure and relief measures. The additional money will serve well for our farming community if we can utilize it as input subsidy,” said a revenue department officer.
Earlier, Prime Minister’s concern over Bihar brought out fury amongst the people in Karnataka. Many citizens in the state questioned PMO for not announcing funds for Karnatak flood-hit areas for all of two months. Many Congress party members protested against the state government in power for not able to bring relief funds from the center.
Karnataka government had submitted a report claiming the losses of July-August floods which was accounted for up to Rs 35,000 crore.
Why there was a delay?
Revenue Minister R Ashok said the home minister had given indications of releasing advance funds for Karnataka after pressure on the Union Government for over a week now.
After BJP in center released Rs 12,00 crore for the flood-hit the state, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa thanked the center for this move.
Central Government has released an amount of 1200 Crores for Karnataka in advance from the National Disaster Response Fund. Expressing gratitude for the support to @PMOIndia Sri @narendramodi ji & @HMOIndia Sri @AmitShah ji on behalf of the people of Karnataka.
— B.S. Yediyurappa (@BSYBJP) October 4, 2019
Explaining the situation as to why there was a delay in the release of funds, officials said that there was a mismatch in the assessment of losses by the center and the state.
Secretary, Expenditure (MoF) has assured me that he shall release the monies tomorrow morning itself. @FinMinIndia @BSYBJP @JoshiPralhad @DVSadanandGowda pic.twitter.com/o0eDlIKHYC
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) October 4, 2019
“We reduced the estimation by deleting the commercial and private properties from the damaged infrastructure list, as they are not eligible for compensation under NDRF norms. During the meeting on Thursday in New Delhi, the Home Minister officially reviewed the revised memorandum and sought the list of beneficiaries for house damage with individual details. We have provided online data and they sought some more details, which we had provided today,” said a senior revenue department officer.
The Congress in the state looked unimpressed with the move as it expected more funds from the center. The Karnataka Congress official Twitter account wrote, “People of the state are humiliated with the allocation of ₹1200cr as against the state govt assessment of ₹35000cr This shows that the center has zero confidence on @BSYBJP govt & doesn’t believe him Kannadigas patience is put to the severe test from @narendramodi on a regular basis!.”
People of state are humiliated with the allocation of ₹1200cr as against the state govt assessment of ₹35000cr
This shows that the centre has zero confidence on @BSYBJP govt & doesn't believe him
Kannadigas patience is put to severe test from @narendramodi on a regular basis!
— Karnataka Congress (@INCKarnataka) October 4, 2019
