Congress activists staged a protest in the city on Tuesday demanding that the Union government release necessary funds for Karnataka to take up relief works in drought-hit areas.
Addressing the protest meet, T.N. Srinivas, president, Shivamogga District Congress Committee, said 134 taluks in Karnataka have been declared drought-hit this year. According to a preliminary estimate, the total loss owing to drought in Karnataka is around Rs. 17,000 crore. The State government had requested the Centre to provide Rs. 4,700 crore to take up relief works in these areas. He said it was unfortunate that the Centre had not released the amount so far, he said.
Mr. Srinivas said the NDA government at the Centre had not understood the gravity of the situation in Karnataka. The Central team that visited drought-hit areas in the State recently did not assess crop loss in a scientific manner. In many places, the officials did not interact with local farmers and elected representatives, he said.
He expressed displeasure over the Centre’s silence on waiving crop loans taken by farmers from nationalised banks in drought-hit areas. In a recently concluded session of State Legislature, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said the State government would waive crop loans from cooperative banks if the Centre waived atleast 50 per cent of the crop loans borrowed from nationalised banks. It is unfortunate that the Centre has remained tight-lipped over the issue, he said.
He added that economic activities in rural areas had received a setback owing to the paucity of cash created by demonetisation. Chairperson of Bhadra Command Area Development Authority H.S. Sundaresh, chairperson of Shivamogga Urban Development Authority Khazi Usman took part in the protest.
