Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the Ministers in charge of the district have been instructed to submit a report on the drought situation in their respective districts to the government by November 15.
Speaking to reporters at Mysuru airport on Sunday, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he had written letters to all the Ministers in charge of the district to study the drought situation in their respective districts by visiting all the taluks and interacting with people and legislators.
However, he said the State government was not waiting for the Centre to release funds to tackle the drought situation in the State. “We have already released ₹900 crore to take up relief works”, he said while regretting that the Centre had not released any money for drought relief works in the State.
Against a loss of ₹33,000 crore that the State had suffered due to drought, the State government had sought Central assistance of ₹17,900 crore as per the NDRF norms.
He regretted that the Central Ministers had not given an audience to Karnataka’s Ministers. Three Ministers from Karnataka viz. Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge, and Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy, who had been to Delhi, were not given an appointment by the Union Ministers, Mr. Siddaramaiah lamented.
He said he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah again on need to release Central funds for drought relief.
Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged that the Centre was showing step motherly treatment towards Karnataka as they were unable to bear the assumption of power in the State by the Congress, which won 135 seats in the Assembly elections.
Reacting to a question from the reporters, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP leaders, who were touring the State to study the drought situation, should instead proceed to Delhi and bring pressure on the Centre to release funds to take up relief measures if they were really concerned about the farmers and the people of the State.
When his attention was drawn to Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing guarantee schemes in the election-bound States after criticising the same in Karnataka, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP’s criticism that the government will go bankrupt by implementing guarantee schemes were politically motivated. For, guarantee schemes meant to help the poor cannot be criticised, he said.
With regard to the public debate on change of leadership in the State, Mr. Siddaramaiah said a breakfast meeting was held in Bengaluru on Saturday, where the Ministers have been told to desist from issuing statements on the matter and instead speak about the achievements made by their respective departments.
While holding the BJP responsible for the speculation on issue of leadership change, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP as well as the JD(S) had become frustrated as their plans to align with each other and form a government had been foiled.
Referring to BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa’s criticism of the caste census conducted in the State and his opposition to the release of its report, Mr. Siddaramaiah recalled that the BJP leader had himself issued a speech along with him demanding the implementation of the caste census report earlier. “There is no value to Mr. Eshwarappa’s statements,” he said.
