Accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of lying that the Karnataka government has delayed submitting memorandum to the Centre for drought relief, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge has said that the State government submitted memoranda for drought relief thrice by October 2023 prior to the visit by a Central team to the State to assess the drought situation.
Of the total 236 taluks in the State, the government declared 196 taluks as severely drought-prone and submitted a report to the Centre on September 22, 2023. Then, a 10-member team from the Centre visited the drought-affected areas on October 5 and 9 and conducted a drought study, he said.
After that, another 21 taluks of the State were declared drought-affected and a memorandum was submitted to the Centre on October 9, he added.
According to the Drought Manual, the report for the kharif season should be submitted by October 31 and the report for rabi season by March 31. And, the State government submitted the kharif drought report on September 22 and an additional appeal was submitted on October 9 within the prescribed date, but Mr. Shah is claiming that the State government delayed submitting a memorandum, he said.
Mr. Kharge explained that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote a letter to the Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on November 15 last year requesting the Central government to release ₹18,171.44 crore as drought relief assistance to compensate farmers who suffered crop damage on 48 lakh hectares of agricultural land in the State.
Again, on November 23, 2023, a delegation from the State comprising Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy and Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda called on the Union Finance Minister and submitted a memorandum requesting drought relief. On December 20, the Chief Minister and the Revenue Minister met Mr. Shah. After the Centre failed to release drought relief, the Ministers and Congress leaders staged a protest in Delhi on February 7, 2024 condemning what they thought injustice in fund allocation towards drought relief.
The State government made all efforts to get drought relief funds from the Centre, while the latter even failed to call a high-level meeting to decide drought funds allocation. And, now, Mr. Shah cooked up a story for the people during his visit on Tuesday.
Likening Mr. Shah to propagandist Joseph Goebbels, Mr. Kharge said that Mr. Shah reminds him of Goebbels, who was in charge of the Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment during Hitler’s regime in Germany. Mr. Shah is inspired by Goebbels theory that said repeating a lie often creates the illusion of truth, the Minister claimed.
Criticising BJP MPs from the State for failing to question the Central government’s inordinate delay in releasing drought relief funds to the State, Mr. Kharge appealed to the people to give a befitting answer to the BJP in upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
