CM slams Centre over drought relief

Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday slammed the Centre for not providing financial assistance to the drought-affected areas in the State.

“The Centre is like a buffalo stuck in a quagmire. There is no use whipping the animal.

It cannot come out of it. Similarly, there is no use of repeated requests to the Centre.

It does not respond,” Gowda said.

The Centre has not responded to the repeated pleas of the State government for financial aid, he told reporters here. “The Union government has been treating the State unfairly. This is discrimination,” he said and added that he would again write to the Centre seeking assistance.

Gowda had recently led an all-party delegation to Delhi and submitted a memorandum seeking a financial aid of Rs 5,864 crore to tackle the severe drought in the State. The delegation had also urged the Centre to immediately release Rs 1,500 crore as an interim relief.

The people of the State were very optimistic about some relief coming from the Centre after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi visited the State recently. Except for sending a team of officials to inspect the affected places, the Centre did nothing, he said.

The State government has declared 123 out of 176 taluks as drought-hit.

Session in Belgaum

Gowda said the government will make all efforts to hold the next session of the State Legislature at Suvarna Soudha in Belgaum. Except for some minor works, the construction of the Suvarna Soudha is complete, Gowda said.