In the wake of crop failure on 36.35 lakh hectares following a deficit monsoon, the State government on Friday sought relief of ₹ 4,702.54 crore from the Centre under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for undertaking drought relief measures.
An all-party delegation, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum seeking funds under NDRF as the State has lost standing crops worth ₹17,193 crore.
The meeting with Mr. Modi had assumed importance as the appointment had not been given to Mr. Siddaramaiah in the last two occasions.
In the memorandum to the PM, Mr Siddaramaiah said 139 taluks of the 176 in the State has been declared drought-hit, affecting 35 lakh farmers.
Referring to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, he said owing to delays in the release of material payments, there has been a slowdown in fresh person-days’ generation and all asset creation works have been halted. He urged the Centre to release the second tranche of ₹2856.72 crore and a memorandum for the purpose was submitted on November 21, 2016. However, the MoRD released ₹255.02 crore so far, which “is clearly insufficient,” he said.
On Mahadayi
Later, Mr. Siddaramaiah told reporters that the delegation had also appealed to the PM to help find an out-of-the-tribunal solution to resolve the inter-State row over sharing of the Mahadayi river water. Mr. Modi has not given any assurance in this regard. However, Mr. Modi gave a patient hearing, he said.
