A day after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman acknowledged a delay in providing drought relief to Karnataka, Deputy CM D K Shivakumar on Sunday said that she was accepting the truth after making unfounded allegations against the state government. Shivakumar made the remark while responding to Sitharaman’s remarks that there was a delay in providing relief as assessing requests from various states affected by natural disasters was a lengthy process. The process, she said, was now over and the Centre had sought permission from the Election Commission to convene a meeting of the High Level Committee and disburse the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). “How many months since we submitted a memorandum to the Centre seeking drought relief? There was no model code of conduct or restrictions from the Election Commission for four and half months since we petitioned,” Shivakumar said. Karnataka approached the Supreme Court in March seeking directions to the Centre to immediately disburse drought relief for the state. Karnataka has sought Rs 18,171.44 crore as relief as 221 of the 236 taluks were declared drought-hit following failed monsoons. Of the amount, Rs 4,663.12 crore was crop loss input subsidy from the NDRF and Rs 12,577 crore was gratuitous relief. “I thank the Union minister for accepting that injustice was meted to Karnataka,” Shivakumar said, adding that Sitharaman was blaming the state government till now over drought relief. The issue over drought relief and reduced share of revenue from the Union government to Karnataka has flared up ahead of Lok Sabha polls. An open debate was organised by Jagrutha Karnataka, Rajya Raitha Sangha and pro-Kannada organisations on Saturday between Sitharaman and Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda. However, the organisers said that Sitharaman did not participate. The Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka will be held in two phases – April 26 and May 7.
