Karnataka gets Rs 1,029 cr more for drought relief

The Ministry of Home Affairs has cleared a Rs 4432.10 crore of additional central assistance to three states affected by natural disasters, including Rs 1,029.39 crore for Karnataka, which faced drought last year.

It has also been decided that the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) will not wait for states' memorandum for conducting visits to states affected by states.

IMCTs will be immediately constituted and deputed to Karnataka, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Kerala affected by recent floods.

Home Minister Amit Shah also directed senior officials to take "every possible measure" to deal with the situation arising out of South-West Monsoon in the concerned states and to extend all necessary assistance to the flood-affected states.

Besides Karnataka, which got the assistance for the drought during 2018-19, Odisha was allocated additional assistance of Rs 3,338.22 crore for Cyclone Fani and Rs 64,49 crore for Himachal Pradesh for avalanches and hailstorms.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the High-Level Committee headed by the Home Minister on Monday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar were present in the meeting, along with senior officers of Ministries of Home Affairs, Finance and Agriculture and NITI Aayog.

"This additional assistance is over and above the funds released by the Centre to the states in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) already placed at the disposal of states. During 2018-19, Centre had released Rs 9,658 crore to all states and during 2019-20, till date Centre has released Rs 6,104 crore to 24 states from SDRF," the statement said.

Reviewing the practice of deputing an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) after the receipt of the memorandum from the state following a calamity, the MHA has now decided that IMCT will will visit the affected areas so as to have a first-hand assessment of damages caused and relief work carried out by the state administration.

"The IMCT will again visit the state after submission of the memorandum for the detailed assessment of the damages and relief operations conducted for making final recommendations for allocation of additional funds," the statement said. At present, IMCT visits the affected state only once after the receipt of memorandum from the state.