Southern States - Karnataka   

Drought: Yediyurappa for all-party meet

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE MAY 25. The BJP leader, B.S. Yediyurappa, MLC, today urged the State Government to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the drought and to chalk out a strategy to tackle it.

Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Yediyurappa said that the State Government had failed in tackling drought, which had mainly affected the people in rural areas. He said there was acute water shortage in rural areas. Criticising the Government, Mr. Yediyurappa said it had not conducted review meetings to understand the ground realities. The ministers were also not inspecting relief works, he charged.

Alleging that the State Government had failed to utilise the funds released by the Union Government for drought relief works, Mr. Yediyurappa said that of the Rs. 192 crore released by the Centre under the Rural Water Supply Scheme, only Rs. 94 crore had been utilised. So was the case with funds released by the Centre for other schemes, he said.

The BJP leader said that funds released under the Prime Minster's Sadak Yojana had not been utilised as the State had not submitted the utilisation report for Rs. 111 crore released by the Union Government. Further, he alleged that Rs. 1,000 crore released under the Accelarated Power Development Programme by the Union Government had not been utilised. On the funds yet to be released to overcome the drinking water problem in Mysore city, Mr. Yediyurappa said that the Government had released only Rs. 5 lakh though it had promised to release Rs. 2 crore.

Calling for immediate steps to tackle the water problem in Mysore, he said that steps should be taken to repair the defunct borewells and drill new ones. Mr. Yediyurappa threatened to launch a State-wide agitation to press for the reduction in bus fares. He said that the diesel prices had declined, but the State-owned transport corporation had not reduced the fares.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Hegde returns, confirms support to Mallya
• `Nagappa case is being hushed up'
• Drought: Yediyurappa for all-party meet
• Black panther dies in zoo
• `Work on Agro-technology Park at Jewargi will start soon'
• DGP faulted on tear gas shells purchase

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu