Flood losses: Govt seeks Rs 2,100 cr under NDRF

Having exhausted the State Disaster Response Fund amount allocated for the current fiscal, Karnataka is seeking an aid of Rs 2,100 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) as a relief for flood victims.

In a memorandum submitted to the Centre on the October floods recently, the state government has estimated losses worth Rs 9,833 crore for which it is eligible to get Rs 1,078 crore as per norms. The compensation for floods in August and September has been calculated to be Rs 1,306 crore.

The memorandum also shows that crop loss was reported in 20.59 lakh hectares of land since August, of which crops in 10.47 lakh hectares were damaged in the October floods.

Revenue Minister R Ashoka said that the memorandum was submitted to the Centre recently. “Both instalments of SDRF allocated to Karnataka have been released already. The additional losses, calculated under the Central government norms, will have to be released under NDRF,” he said.

A Central team will arrive shortly to assess losses in the fresh spell of floods, he said, adding that the memorandum was submitted last week.

Last year, too, Karnataka had to resort to NDRF funds for relief and received around Rs 1,800 crore under the Fund after being hit with one of the worst floods in a century.

Of the Rs 791 crore released by Centre - 75% share of the Rs 1,054 crore allocation for the state - Karnataka has already released Rs 737.8 crore, of which only Rs 276.08 crore went towards flood relief. A lion’s share of SDRF, Rs 436.62 crore, was expended for Covid-19 relief activities, forcing the state to dig into its depleted coffers to disburse the compensation.

Crop loss

Data shows that the crop loss, suffered during the year, was twice that of 2019 when agriculture, horticulture and plantation crops in 9.69 lakh hectare were damaged. Most of the losses suffered during the year were in districts such as Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Hassan and Bagalkot.

Though Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had sought special relief package from Centre, sources in Revenue Department told DH that any such package was highly unlikely.

“We are hoping that at least NDRF funds are released soon,” an official source said.