Criticising the Centre for its failure to release funds to tackle the widespread drought situation in the State, R. Dhruvanarayan, MP, Chamarajanagar, said he would raise the issue in the Lok Sabha during the Budget session of the Parliament scheduled to begin on January 31.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Mr. Dhruvanarayan said the Centre had sanctioned ₹1,782 crore for relief work in 139 drought-hit taluks of the State, but not a single rupee had been released so far.
Though the State had sought ₹4,702 crore to take up relief measures to help more than 35 lakh farmers affected by the drought, the amount sanctioned by the Centre was less than half of this amount. This, he said, was in contrast to the liberal sanction of drought-relief funds for the neighbouring Maharashtra.
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Mr. Dhruvanarayan also accused the Centre of step-motherly treatment towards non-BJP ruled states such as Karnataka.
The MP said Karnataka had distributed the funds released by the Centre last year to the beneficiary farmers in a transparent manner through RTGS. The ₹606 crore released by the Centre owing to the failure of the northeast monsoon in 2015-16 was credited directly into the bank accounts of 11 lakh farmers while the ₹1,542 crore released after the failure of southwest monsoon in 2015-16 was also remitted to the accounts of the beneficiary farmers, he said.