Drought relief: Not even a quarter of state’s demand: CM Siddaramaiah
Kalaburagi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that Rs. 3464 crores of Drought relief is being by the Central Government on the instructions of the Supreme Court. This is not even a quarter of the request submitted by the state government.
Answering a media query about the release of drought relief from the Center to the states, the state had submitted a memorandum seeking the release of Rs 18,172 crore relief as per NDRF guidelines.
Crop loss occurred in 48 lakh hectares amounting to around Rs. 35000 crore but Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaram lied that the state submitted the memorandum late.
Later Nirmala Sitharaman said that he did not seek grants for drought relief, but for guarantees. We haven’t asked for a single penny for guarantee schemes and we never will. Both of them had lied.
I met Narendra Modi on December 19, 2023, and brought to his notice the dire drought situation in the state and the plight of the farmers, and the memorandum submitted to release Rs.18172 crore to the State and requested to be released soon. He said that he would inform the concerned immediately.
When I met Amit Shah on December 20, he told me that he would call a high-level committee meeting on December 23 and take a decision. For the first time in the history of India, the Supreme Court had to intervene and as a result, very little relief was provided after the directive. We asked for 18174 crores but they gave 3454 crores which is Very low. Siddaramaiah said that the next course of action will be decided after discussing this with the officers.
When the writ petition was filed before the Supreme Court, the Attorney General and Solicitor General appeared on behalf of the Government of India. They have not submitted either Nirmala Sitharaman’s words or Amit Shah’s words. Supreme Court directed the Centre to take immediate necessary steps to release relief, commenting that it is not right to make the state governments approach the court in such matters. They had asked for two weeks to settle the matter quickly. After two weeks, they have asked for one more week. Now the case will be heard on the 28th. Meanwhile, the central government has given 3454 crores. It is Less than a fourth of the amount we asked for. He said that this will be discussed with the authorities about further course of action.
Narendra Modi is very good at lying. They have marketed lies. He is trying to harm the dignity of people by saying irrelevant things, inflaming people’s feelings, and polarizing them, which undermines the dignity of the post of Prime Minister. We have complained about this to the Election Commission. It does us no harm. People can understand lies.
We have complained to the Election Commission regarding reservation and Mangalasutra issues. No action has been taken yet. Notice has been given to them. We look forward to taking action.
We proposed to people what we did. We have told everything that the central government has said and done. The verdict of the people is final. As our five guarantees have made an impact on the lives of people and the Congress party has acted as promised, I am confident that people have trust and confidence in the Congress, he said.
People judge according to their discretion. Our words are also taken into consideration, if we believe people are stupid, then we are stupid. Voters are intelligent and politically mature. Look at all times, people have voted very wisely, he said.
Regarding the Surat nomination issue, A candidate may have been influenced by another candidate. That is why disciplinary action has been taken against the candidate of the party, he said.
Reacting to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma’s statement, the Chief Minister said, “I don’t know if he knows Karnataka or not.” I don’t even know if he understood the ideas here or not. I also like to clarify that there is no cold war between me and D.K . Shivakumar. He is the Chief Minister of Assam. Not even the Prime Minister of this country, not the Leader of the Opposition in Karnataka, not even the BJP President”.
The Chief Minister replied to a journalist’s question about the receipt of two crores of money allegedly belonging to the Congress party. Let the Election Commission take action, he said. In addition, Rs. 4.8 crore belongs to BJP’s Dr.Sudhakar. It was found Mahajar has been conducted and FIR has been filed. What would you say about it, he asked. He added that action should be taken against anyone who commits an illegal act.