BENGALURU: Calling it “inadequate,” Congress leaders in the state, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, staged a protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha on Sunday against the “meagre sum” released as drought relief by the Union Government. The Centre, on Saturday, released Rs 3,498 crore to Karnataka as drought relief against the state’s demand of Rs 18,171 crore.
The CM was joined by DyCM DK Shivakumar, AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, ministers Dr G Parameshwara, Ramalinga Reddy, Krishna Byre Gowda, N Chaluvarayaswamy, Dinesh Gundu Rao, and KH Muniyappa, and MLAs HC Balakrishna, Rizwan Arshad, and others. They accused the Centre of meting out stepmotherly treatment towards Karnataka.
“We are not seeking alms. We are seeking funds for our farmers,” Shivakumar said, adding that farmers are also in distress as the Centre failed to increase man-days under MGNREGA from 100 days to 150 days. “We are not asking the Centre to pay for me or Siddaramaiah but for the hardship suffered by the state. But the Centre has failed to respect the federal system,” he added. The DyCM said that the state, on its own, is paying Rs 2,000 to each farmer as drought aid.