'Central team concurred with govt on rain damage'

The Central team is convinced about the extent of damage caused by the unseasonal rains in 11 districts in April and May, Law Minister T B Jayachandra claimed on Monday.

The team of nine officials, which assessed damage in these districts, has also concurred with the State government’s assessment of the overall losses incurred, which is to the tune of Rs 711.38 crore. Though the team’s visit to Karnataka was delayed, the government is now hopeful that the Centre would release its share of calamity relief grant of Rs 151.28 crore to the State, he said.

Jayachandra and Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda held a meeting on Monday with the team headed by R B Sinha, joint secretary, Agriculture Ministry.

Addressing the media later, he said the State government had already announced the enhanced input subsidy of Rs 25,000 per hectare as an immediate relief to the affected farmers. Under this, the government had disbursed Rs 119 crore, out of Rs 216 crore announced, he said. Gowda said that since Karnataka had already paid the compensation, it had sought Rs 268.22 crore as total relief from the Centre.

Background

In April, hailstorm accompanied by untimely high-intensity rain had flattened standing agricultural and horticultural crops spread over 1.05 lakh hectares in Bidar, Yadgir, Kalaburagi, Bellary, Raichur, Koppal, Vijayapura, Gadag, Bengaluru Rural, Kolar and Chikkaballapur.