Cong slams BJP for not releasing Rs 5K Cr for floods

The Congress in Karnataka on Friday threatened to agitate against the "anti-people" stand of the BJP government in the state as well as the Centre and slammed the latter for not releasing Rs 5,000 crore for flood relief in Karnataka.

"We have been demanding the release of Rs 5,000 crore as an interim relief, which the union government is yet to take a decision. That is why we are demanding either to act or to resign and go. Otherwise, we are going to expose the anti-people attitude of the BJP in the floor of the House and so also in the public," Congress spokesperson V S Ugrappa told reporters.

He slammed the union ministers "for doing nothing" even after visiting the State.

"The union government, it appears, is going to send a team. If that was the case then why Nirmala Sitharaman (finance minister) visited, why Amit Shah (union home minister) visited Karnataka? Was that a picnic trip? Why Yediyurappa had an aerial survey? He should have demanded the release of some money," Ugrappa said.

Ugrappa said the Congress has been saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have toured the affected areas, as he recalled the visit of then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2009 in the face of severe floods across the state and instant release of a grant of Rs 1,600 crore at the time.

"Now in spite of demands from the opposition, the Prime Minister is not ready to have first-hand information by going for an aerial survey.

We have been insisting to declare it as a national calamity. No reaction!" Ugrappa said.

As many as 62 people have lost their lives and 14 missing in the floods in the State in the last fortnight.