New Delhi, Dec 13: A delegation led by Karnataka state home minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge met Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to seek stepped up financial assistance and 300,000 tonnes of rice to face one of the worst droughts in the recent decades. Kharge, accompanied by state irrigation minister H K Patil and animal husbandry minister M Mahadev and state minister K B Koliwad, apprised Advani that the state had lifted over 90 per cent of the two lakh tonnes of allocated rice, utilising 1.3 lakh tonnes, for taking up food-for-work schemes in the drought affected parts of the state. Over 40,000 relief works were in progress.
The delegation also urged the government to consider the revised memorandum for central assistance of Rs 1,562 crore. The state welcomed the Rs 171.28 crore sanctioned from the national calamity contigency fund, although it was insufficient.
The memorandum submitted to the deputy prime minister, who is also the head of the task force on drought, stressed that the nearly 70 per cent of cropped area in Khariff had been lost making it difficult for the people and the state government. The farmers and the farm labourers could not expect anything until next Kharif. The state had provided sufficient funds to available at district level and was now seeking central help to ensure relief works.
The delegation also sought permission to use calamity relief fund for taking up borewells in areas of acute drinking water problem.
The delegation is scheduled to meet union agriculture minister Ajit Singh later in the day to apprise him of the state's drought concerns. Bureau Report