BENGALURU/KALABURAGI: Nearly six months after Karnataka submitted a memorandum, the state on Saturday finally received Rs 3,454 crore from
Centre
under Natural Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to counter the prevailing
drought
situation. This, however, is way short of Karnataka’s initial demand of Rs 18,174 crore, which included Rs 5,662 crore for compensation to farmers.
Congress has planned a sit-in protest on Vidhana Soudha premises in Bengaluru seeking the release of more funds.
CM Siddaramaiah said in Kalaburagi: “The
funds
were released not out of concern for Karnataka, but because of the intervention of Supreme Court. What Centre has released is not even a quarter of what we had asked for. So we have decided to continue our fight for further share.”
The fund is expected to significantly boost the Congress govt in the state as it coincides with the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in north and central Karnataka — areas reeling under severe drought.
A high-powered committee chaired by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had approved the release of funds after Centre’s commitment before SC to disburse the corpus within a week, which was made during the last hearing on Karnataka’s plea questioning the delay.
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