The Hindu : `Govt. has failed on drought relief front'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 19, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

`Govt. has failed on drought relief front'

By Our Staff Correspondent

GULBARGA Aug. 18. The former Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council, B.R. Patil, today accused the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, of spreading falsehood about the drought relief works taken up in the State and charged that the Government had failed miserably to provide relief to the affected people.

Mr. Patil told presspersons here that the Chief Minister should accept the challenge of the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, for a public debate on the assistance provided by the Centre to the State to tackle the drought. Such a dialogue between the senior BJP leader and the Chief Minister would throw more light on the confusion prevailing on the extent of assistance provided by the Centre, he said.

Though he did not hold any brief for the Centre on its record in providing relief to States, Mr. Patil said the State Government should come out with the details of the actual expenditure incurred for the drought relief works and the amount of foodgrains provided by the Centre under the food for work programme.

Referring to the situation in Gulbarga District, Mr. Patil said the lackadaisical approach of the officials had resulted in the people being deprived of relief measures. Out of the ten taluks, only Jewargi, Afzalpur, Shahpur, and Chincholi had prepared action plans to tackle the drought. The six other taluks, including Yadgir, the home taluk of Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the district in-charge minister, were yet to submit action plans on the drought relief work to the district administration. He said Mr. Kharge had failed to ensure timely relief to the people and had also not cared to tour the affected taluks and hold review meetings to gain information about the relief works being implemented. "Mr. Kharge is more interested in organising the ITF futures tennis tournament in the city than in organising drought relief works in the affected areas," he charged.

Mr Patil said the members of the zilla panchayat, taluk panchayats, and gram panchayats should be actively involved in the monitoring of drought relief works.

Referring to the plea of the State Government to extend the deadline for payment of the crop insurance premium by farmers to August 30, he said the farmers were not in a position to even pay the premium because of the losses suffered in successive droughts. Therefore, the Government should pay the insurance premium on behalf of the farmers, he added.

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`Govt. has failed on drought relief front'