Less than four days after Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa made a plea to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release additional funds for undertaking relief works in the State’s flood-hit districts, the Centre on Monday approved the release of ₹669.85 crore to the State.
The Centre had earlier announced a first instalment of ₹1,200 crore. With the second instalment, the total aid released by the Centre to Karnataka comes up to ₹1,869.85 crore, sources in the Chief Minister’s Office told The Hindu.
As many as 103 taluks were hit by last year’s floods, which left crops and properties worth more than ₹1 lakh crore damaged.
The Home Ministry, in a statement, said the decision to release a second instalment of funds was taken at a high-level committee meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah. The Opposition had been criticising Mr. Modi for neglecting the State by not releasing funds for undertaking relief works in flood-hit districts.
Overall, the Centre has approved the release of ₹5,908.56 crore to seven States, including Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam, from the National Disaster Response Fund. A total of ₹616.63 crore is for Assam, ₹284.93 crore for Himachal Pradesh, ₹1,869.85 crore for Karnataka, ₹1,749.73 crore for Madhya Pradesh, ₹956.93 crore for Maharashtra, ₹63.32 for Tripura, and ₹367.17 crore for Uttar Pradesh, all for floods, landslips and cloudbursts that took place during the 2019 southwest monsoon.
Earlier, the Union government had released interim financial assistance totalling ₹3,200 crore to four States — ₹1,200 crore to Karnataka, ₹1,000 crore to Madhya Pradesh, ₹600 crore to Maharashtra, and ₹400 crore to Bihar.
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