Karnataka drought relief: CM Siddaramaiah accuses Centre of lying in Supreme Court

The government petitioned the Supreme Court in March alleging undue delay in disbursing drought relief as per National Disaster Response Fund guidelines. The petition stated that though the Karnataka government had submitted multiple memorandums seeking drought relief, the central government had not convened a high-level committee meeting to disburse relief.

“During today’s hearing, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the Karnataka Government is to blame for the delay in drought relief, suggesting a political motive behind it. This is highly condemnable,” he said, accusing Mehta of an attempt to cover up the Centre’s failures.

The chief minister said Karnataka submitted in September 2023 a memorandum including details of the losses and the expected relief amount for the drought. He and Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda later met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi over the issue.

“Our Deputy Chief Minister (DK Shivakumar) too had separately met the Union Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman). Despite this, the Union Finance Minister and the Home Minister shamelessly continue to falsely claim that the Karnataka Government has been late in submitting its request. Today, the Union Government repeated this lie before the Supreme Court as well,” he said.

Siddaramaiah said that Karnataka’s fight against the injustice done by the central government in the provision of drought relief would continue. “We will expose the lies of the Union Government one by one and reveal its true face to the people of the state,” he added.

The state government’s claims received a boost after Sitharaman told a news conference on April 6 that there was a delay in releasing drought relief to Karnataka.