BENGALURU, 23 MARCH

Karnataka government has filed a petition in Supreme Court demanding a direction to Centre to immediately release grants under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to State, which is reeling under acute drought, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday.

The State government requested Rs 18,171 crore as drought relief, but the Central government has not yet released any funds, Siddaramaiah said. “Because of circumstances like these, disaster management law has been made. We did not want to get to Supreme Court as we believed the Central government would pay us the compensation. Though it has been more than five months since we met them personally, nothing has happened so far,” the Chief Minister said. 

Siddaramaiah said he has filed a writ petition against the Central government under Article 32 of Constitution to give directions to Government of India to release NDR Funds immediately, which was supposed to be released by the Centre according to law. Supreme Court will hear the petition after its weekly vacation, he said. 

The drought relief study team from the Centre came to the State in October. After the team submitted its report, it has to be studied and the compensation should be paid within a month, Siddaramaiah said. “Even after this, we met Prime Minister Modi on 20 December and explained about the drought in the State and requested him to release the money. We met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and explained the situation in the State. Shah said they have called a meeting on 23 December and will decide later. When Modi when came to Bengaluru, we appealed to him then as well. Then he said he will release the money. But no money has been given,” Siddaramaiah said. 

Siddaramaiah claimed that the Central government had violated the drought relief act. “They have broken the law, and it is the rule to approach the court for justice, and that is what we’re doing. The State government released Rs 650 crore from our treasury and gave Rs 2,000 each to 33.44 lakh farmers considering the problems faced by them,” he said.