The Union Government has reportedly released `80 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) towards compensation to the farmers who suffered crop loss owing to unseasonal rain, wind and hailstorm in parts of the State recently.
According to official sources, the fund released from the Centre would be utilised to compensate farmers and others who had suffered crop as well as property losses in March this year.
The unseasonal rain had damaged rabi crops, including wheat, pulses, oilseeds and horticultural crops in over two lakhs hectares in Yadagir, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Raichur, Koppal, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts.
The State Government estimated the loss at Rs 900 crore and submitted a memorandum to a central study team, which toured the state in March.
The government appealed to the Centre to calculate the financial assistance on the basis of the extent of loss.
The extent of damage in the neighboring Maharashtra was comparatively huge, where the unseasonal rain with hailstorm wrought havoc in over 28 districts, destroying standing crops worth over Rs 5,000 crore.
It may be recalled that a high-level committee comprising Union ministers, Sharad Pawar, P Chidambaram and Sushil Kumar Shinde, had decided to release Rs 844 crores to Maharashtra.