Karnataka Govt to release Rs 50 Cr in a week for flood relief

Bangalore, July 10 (UNI) The Karnataka Government will release Rs 50 crore within a week to take up flood relief measures in the affected districts of the state, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy announced in the Assembly today even as the opposition members led by their leader N Dharam Singh staged a walkout expressing displeasure over his reply.

Replying to a discussion he said the government had already released Rs 50 crore. Agricultural crops in over 25,000 hectares of land were affected due to floods, he said.

The government had already released Rs 31 crore for drinking water and Rs 14.5 crore for flood relief measures, he added.

Denying the opposition charge that the government had not spent the central funds for the purpose including the Vidarbha package, Mr Kumaraswamy said the Centre had sent Rs 66 crore only so far under the Vidharbha package of Rs 2690 crore for the state.

However, the government had kept Rs 136 crore with the District Deputy Commissioners to take up various measures and there was no dearth of funds, he added.

Referring to criticism by the opposition of his idea of staying in villages he said numerous problems faced by the poor people could be solved through this. Observing that he became Chief Minister of the state by a quirk of fate, he said he was ready to bring out a white paper as demanded.

By improving the Gross Domestic Product one could not wipe out poverty and there was a need to understand the ground reality and initiate measures to rectify mistakes, he said, adding he was not staying in villages for cheap publicity.

Speaker Krishna adjourned the house for the day amidst dharna by the opposition party members.

UNI