Karnataka seeks Rs 300 crore to fight drought

New Delhi, Feb 14 (UNI) Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order the release of Rs 300 crores from National Calamity Contingency Funds for the re-settlement of drought affected people.

The request was made to the Prime Minister in order to apprise him of various pending projects as well as the law and order situation in the state, after the pronouncement of the final orders of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

Mr Swamy said Karnataka was expecting the Centre to release the second instalment of CRF after the inspection report of the Central team which had earlier visited various drought and flood affected districts of the state.

The failure of South-West monsoons had made the state experience one of its worst droughts since 1971, affecting 128 of 176 taluks.

This fund would be utilised towards employment generation of about 18 lakh agricultural labourers under various employment generation activities in the drought affected districts.

He also informed the PM about the low storage capacity in several major reservoirs of the state, including the ones across Cauvery, Tungabhadra and Ghataprabha rivers and the state government had to provide for transport of drinking water to 40 villages and 11 towns.

He, urged the Centre to release 5.74 lakh tonnes of food grains to overcome the drought conditions and also double the number of days under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to 200 days.

UNI