Shah, K’taka CM in war of words over drought relief

Tribune News Service

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, April 2

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday sparred over alleged non-release of drought relief funds by the Centre to the state. Siddaramaiah accused the Centre of betraying the people of the state by not disbursing the relief fund, while Shah alleged that the state government caused a delay in sending the proposal.

The blame game

• Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accused the Centre of betraying the people of the state by not disbursing relief funds
• Union Home Minister Amit Shah, however, alleged that the state government caused a delay in sending the proposal for relief

Addressing party workers in Bengaluru, Shah said: “There is drought in Karnataka, they (state government) were late by three months in sending a proposal to the Centre, and today the application for drought relief from the Centre is with the Election Commission. The Congress government is doing politics over it.”

Shah said the Congress government was not working in the interests of the state as the CM and the Deputy CM (DK Shivakumar) were in a tussle with each other.

“The CM and the Deputy CM here…one is busy trying to save his chair and the other is busy trying to snatch the chair,” Shah said.

Rebutting Shah’s claims, Siddaramaiah said as per the Drought Manual-2020 guidelines, a state could declare an early-season drought only during August. He said during the kharif season-2023, Karnataka assessed the drought twice (June 1 to August 19 and June 1 to September 2). On September 23, Karnataka submitted the first memorandum to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“On November 20, 2023, the Agriculture Ministry sent the proposal of Karnataka, with the recommendation of the subcommittee of the national executive committee, for placing it before a high-level committee, which the Home Minister chairs. Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and I met PM Narendra Modi on December 19, 2023, and on December 20 we met you,” Siddaramaiah said. “So, from November 2023 till now, you and your ministry have been sleeping over the matter, while our 35 lakh farmers, having suffered from crop and income losses, are waiting for input subsidy of over Rs 4,663 crore,” he said.

Karnataka has declared 223 of the 240 taluks as drought-hit; 196 of them were categorised as severely drought-affected.

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