Karnataka CM stages dharna over drought relief funds delay

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday staged a dharna here protesting against the delay in release of drought relief funds by the Centre and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the issue.

Siddaramaiah said the protest -- held in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the premises of Vidhana Soudha which houses the Legislature and State Secretariat -- was aimed at drawing public attention towards the “injustice” done to Karnataka and its people by the BJP-led government at the Centre.

He alleged that Modi and Shah “hate Karnataka and its farmers” due to which the drought relief funds were not released even after seven months of severe drought.

Citing government survey reports, he said 223 out of 240 taluks of the state are drought-affected.

Several memoranda to the Centre seeking release of grants were “met with silence” though the state assessed that it required Rs 18,171 crore for drought relief work as per the NDRF norms, he said.

As standing crops on 48,000 hectares were destroyed due to inadequate rains, the state government from its own resources paid Rs 2,000 to each farmer, thereby incurring an expenditure of Rs 650 crore on 34 lakh farmers,

Siddaramaiah said.