Gowda urges PM to release Rs 5,000 cr as interim flood relief for K'taka

Bengaluru: Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release Rs 5,000 crore as interim relief to flood-ravaged Karnataka and to notify it as "national calamity."

In a letter to Modi, the JD(S) patriarch said he had not seen such destruction to both human lives and properties in his six decades of political career.

"I request you to release rupees five thousand crore as interim relief pending submission of final memorandum by the state government followed by assessment from a high-level central team and recommendation of the inter-ministerial committee on disaster management on assessment and quantification of the damage suffered by the state due to flood havoc," Gowda said in his letter. "I hope that the government of India would extend its helping hand in the hours of need to wipe the tears of vast population of the state which has facing a major tragedy and to rebuild their lively hood with all form of assistance from the state and central governments," he said.

However, the Karnataka government has requested the Centre to immediately release Rs 3,000 crore. A total of 2,694 villages in eighty-six taluks of 17 districts in Karnataka have been affected due to floods and rains.