Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi said that in the last six years, the NDA government had released funds under National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) to the tune of 43.2% of the total demand by State, while it was just over 10% under UPA rule.
Addressing presspersons here on Monday, Mr. Joshi claimed that Union government led by the NDA had released more funds to the State under NDRF than the UPA-led government.
Countering allegations by the Congress leaders about not much relief being given to Karnataka, which had seen frequent natural calamities in the last few years, Mr. Joshi gave details of the funds released. “From financial years 2003-04 to 2013/14 during which Karnataka was under coalition governments and under the BJP, the total demand for grants under NDRF submitted to the Central government was ₹44,542 crore. And the UPA government released just ₹4,609 crore, which was just over 10.35% of the total demand,” he said.
“But under the NDA rule from 2014-15 to 2019-20, the State sought relief of ₹27,208 crore of which the NDA government released ₹11,753 crore, which is around 43.2% of the total demand,” he said, asking former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to first look into reality before making statements for the sake of politics.
Mr. Joshi maintained that in all sectors, including infrastructure, allocations under the NDA rule had been more than the UPA government. “If you ask any genuine farmer, he will tell you that highest Minimum Support Price for farm produce was fixed during the NDA rule,” he said.
The Congress leaders, including Mr. Siddarmaiah, had launched an attack on the BJP government in the State and the Centre alleging that no relief had reached the flood-displaced people. Mr. Siddaramaiah had even alleged that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no time to visit Karnataka, even relief was not being released by the Central government.
