Special panels to monitor drought relief

By Our Staff Correspondent

DAVANGERE, SEPT. 11. The State Government has decided to form special committees at the taluk level and district level for effective implementation of the drought relief measures, the Revenue Minister, Mr. H.C.Srikantaiah, has said.

Talking to presspersons here today, Mr. Srikantaiah said that after touring some of the drought-affected districts, he had concluded that such committees were needed for implementing the works effectively. He said that instructions had been given to the deputy commissioners and other officials to initiate the process of forming such committees.

The Minister said that the taluk-level committees would be headed by the MLA, and the zilla panchayat members and the president and vice-president of the taluk panchayat would be members of the special committees. The tahsildar would be the nodal officer of the committee. The committee would take decisions on the works to be taken up.

The district-level committees would be headed by the district in- charge minister, and MLCs and ZP members would be members. The Deputy Commissioner would be the chief convenor of the committee. To a question, he said the number of drought-hit taluks had gone up from 146 to 151 with the addition of Holenarsipur, Kolar, Bangarpet, and Hiriyur taluks to the list.

Mr. Srikantaiah said Rs.70 crores had been released for drought relief measures. The all-party team, which visited Delhi, submitted a detailed report on the drought to the Union Government and sought an assistance of Rs.900 crores, but the sum had not been sanctioned so far. The Union Government had sanctioned crores of rupees to Andhra Pradesh and Orissa when they were affected by natural calamities, but it was discriminating against Karnataka, he charged.

The sum of Rs.58 crores released by the Centre was only the State's share under the Calamity Relief Fund. But for this, the Centre had not provided any financial assistance to the State, he said.

Despite the funds crunch, the State Government had not neglected the drought relief works, nor was it wasting time waiting for Central funds, he said, adding that the Government had decided to mobilise funds for the relief works.

Mr. Srikantaiah regretted that the Central team which had come to the State to assess the situation had formed a wrong picture of the situation. When the Central team was here, there was rainfall in some areas, including Mulbagal. But the areas around Mulbagal did not receive rainfall. Since there was rainfall in Mulbagal, the Central team formed a picture that there was no drought, he said, and blamed the State's plight on bad luck.

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Section  : Southern States
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