Govt seeks Rs 3,000 cr interim flood relief from Centre

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa requested both Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to release Rs 3,000 crore as interim relief at the earliest for taking up relief works in the flood-affected parts of the state.

"Since the two Union ministers have personally taken stock of the devastation in the state, I am hopeful about the release of the funds. As per the preliminary assessment, the flood-related losses could be around Rs 30,000 crore," Yediyurappa said here on Sunday.

He was speaking at a media briefing at Sambra airport after accompanying Union Home Minister Amit Shah who conducted aerial survey of the flood situation in the region and held meeting with officials.

Earlier, Chief Secretary to Government T M Vijay Bhasker informed Shah that losses over Rs 10,000 crore have been suffered in the state due to the floods, while 4.81 lakh persons had been shifted to safer places and 22,431 houses had been damaged as per the preliminary reports.

A total of 19 teams of National Disaster Response Force have been deployed in Kodagu district for rescue operations and two more helicopters are needed. Rain has receded in Maharashtra and Karnataka, and the situation would ease in the next two days, the chief secretary said. He also briefed the Union minister about the measures taken to manage the flood situation.

District in-charge Secretary Rakesh Singh informed about the flood losses in the district.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi, Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi, Rajya Sabha Member Dr Prabhakar Kore, MLAs Abhay Patil, Umesh Katti, Anil Benke, Shashikala Jolle, Duryodhan Aihole, Mahadevappa Yadwad and other officials were present.

Siddaramaiah alleges discrimination

Congress leader Siddaramaiah demanded that the Central government declare the floods in the state as a national disaster, here on Sunday. Seeking Rs 5,000 crore from the Centre for flood relief, he said that the funds released for floods till date was "not sufficient even for first aid," reports DHNS from Bengaluru.

He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to conduct an aerial survey of the flood-affected regions like Manmohan Singh did during the 2008 floods and release special funds. Speaking at a press meet, he accused the Centre of 'step-motherly' treatment, and said that the state felt betrayed as it was not receiving enough funds as other affected states.

Relief activities in the state is affected as there is no Council of Ministers in the State, save the chief minister, he said. Terming remarks by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa that MLAs were working like ministers to aid the affected population "irresponsible," he said that MLAs could not exercise the same powers as ministers.

Since there is no government, proper measures are not being taken to tackle the crisis, he alleged.

Later in the day, he took to Twitter to attack the Central government and wrote, "Central govt is still sleeping even after seeing the severity of the floods & the damages due to floods. They should immediately declare this as National disaster.@PMOIndia @narendramodi should visit these places, conduct scientific survey & release 5,000 crore."