KALABURGI: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has expressed dissatisfaction over the quantum of drought relief funds announced by the Union Government.
Addressing the media in Kalaburagi on Saturday, the CM said the Karnataka government, in its memorandum submitted to the Centre, had sought Rs 18,172 crore as drought relief compensation as per the guidelines of the NDRF. But the Centre has allocated a mere Rs 3,464 crore to Karnataka, which is not even a quarter of the request submitted by the State Government, Siddaramaiah charged.
“Our writ petition in the Supreme Court asking it to direct the Centre to release drought compensation was heard by the court last Monday. The Advocate General and Solicitor General submitted before the apex court that the Centre will announce the compensation within a week. The case will come up before the Supreme Court this Monday or Tuesday, and at that time we will bring it to the notice of the Supreme Court about the meagre amount announced by the Union Government,” the CM said, adding that Karnataka saw crop loss on 48 lakh hectares, and the loss is pegged at Rs 35,000 crore. “But Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman accused the State Government of submitting the memorandum late, which is completely false. Later, the finance minister said that Karnataka did not seek grants for drought relief but for guarantees. Both of them have lied. We haven’t asked a single penny for the guarantees,” the CM said.
On the statement of PM Narendra Modi that Karnataka has given reservations to Muslims, the CM said that the former “is very good at telling lies.”
“They have marketed lies. He is trying to harm the dignity of the Karnataka government by saying irrelevant things and polarising people, which is unbecoming of the post of the PM. We have complained about this to the Election Commission of India,” Siddaramaiah said, adding that such statements by the PM would not affect the Congress’ prospects in the Lok Sabha polls “as people are wise enough to understand lies”.
When asked if the results of the Lok Sabha polls would be an indicator of the performance of his government, the CM evaded answering directly and said, “The verdict of the people is final. We have to bow before people’s verdict.” Siddaramaiah said he has reports that the Congress will bag more seats than in the previous election in the 14 seats that went to the polls on Friday,
‘No cold war with DKS’
Reacting to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s statement of “internal sabotage” in the Karnataka Congress, the CM said that there was no cold war between him and KPCC president and DyCM DK Shivakumar. “He (Sarma) has no knowledge about the Congress and the government in Karnataka. He is neither the PM nor the opposition leader in Karnataka to comment on us. Shivakumar and I share a good relationship,” Siddaramaiah said.