Karnataka approaches SC against Centre seeking release of NDRF grants to tackle drought
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the state government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding a direction to the Centre to immediately release grants under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state, which is reeling under acute drought. Accusing the Centre of sitting on Karnataka's pleas for release of funds though there is a severe drought, he said the state government was compelled to approach the apex court.
«Today the Karnataka government filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the Centre after waiting for five months. Since there is vacation for a week in the Supreme Court, we did not get the endorsement. We expect it next week,» Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
The petition was filed under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution to give directions to the Government of India to release NDR Funds immediately, which was supposed to be released by the Centre according to law, he explained.
«We have declared drought in 223 Taluks out of 236 Taluks in the state. We evaluated four times. Agricultural crops have been lost in an area of 48 lakh hectares. We sent three memoranda to the Centre in a row but we did not get even a single penny so far,» the chief minister alleged.
In October last year, a Central team came to the state and conducted an inspection and submitted an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) report to the union government. Within a month of submitting the report, the Centre has to give compensation to the state, Siddaramaiah said.
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