Congress will Boycott Programmes of BJP Ministers for Failure to provide relief to Flood Victims – Ivan
Mangaluru: The Pradesh Congress Committee will hold a massive rally in Belagavi on September 24 to protest against the failure of the state and Union government to provide relief to the flood and drought-affected districts, said MLC Ivan D’Souza.
Ivan further said, “Even after 50 days, the government has failed to release compensation for the victims of natural calamities. Those who have lost their houses should be paid the rent allowance of Rs 5,000 in addition and also Rs 5,000 for their daily expenses. The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has also decided to hold a protest in Mangaluru against the state government in the first week of October”.
“Apart from giving an ex gratia of Rs 10,000, no other relief work was taken up in the flood-affected taluks by the government. Even a monthly rent allowance of Rs 5,000 each to those who have lost their houses was not sanctioned. The state has incurred a loss of Rs 35,000 crore due to floods. The government, however, had released only Rs 1,500 crore for the relief work. Unfortunately, the Centre is behaving as though it has nothing to do with our state. Although the finance minister and the home minister have assessed the damage and submitted a report, the Central government has failed to release the funds,” pointed out Ivan.
Ivan also said, “Yesterday, union minister Sadananda Gowda said that the central government’s fund would be released within a month. As a Union Minister, he should have some commonsense, the affected people are suffering without a place to stay and the Union government is still asking them to wait for one more month. The Congress party condemns the attitude of Minister Gowda and will boycott the state and union minister’s programme in coming days”.
“Flood victims are fed up with the attitude of the State government. Recently the flood victims and farmers had almost gheraoed the large and medium scale industries minister Jagadish Shettar in Belagavi and expressed their anger over the negligence by State and Union government in providing compensation. If the same continues, other ministers will also have to face such situations across the state”, warned Ivan.