Floods: Karnataka seeks Rs 4,000 crores special assistance from centre
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday said it has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide additional special assistance of Rs 4,000 crore to handle the flood situation in the state.
"As per the initial assessment Rs 4,000 crore loss has occurred. It is a preliminary estimate because rains are continuing. A proper survey has to be done," Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.
Speaking to reporters after attending the virtual meeting chaired by the PM with Chief Ministers of six states to review the flood situation in the country, he said Karnataka had suffered huge damage in the 2019 floods, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the current flood situation, the government has requested the Centre to provide additional special assistance of Rs 4,000 crore, other than NDRF norms, he said.
"We also requested the Prime Minister to kindly direct the immediate release of the next installment of SDRMF of Rs 395 crore to Karnataka to take up relief and rehabilitation measures," he said.
This was a preliminary submission and a detailed memorandum would be sent to the Centre in the days to come, he said
Revenue Minister R Ashoka, along with Bommai, attended the video conference in the absence of Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who had been undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
The Chief Minister has since been discharged.
At the meeting, the Prime Minister directed officials to look into providing both immediate and long-term relief to affected states, the Ministers said.
Ashoka said the state government will utilise the funds available with it to manage the situation and provide relief to those affected until it received the central fund.
Several parts of Malnad, coastal and interior Karnataka have been ravaged by torrential rains, causing floods and landslides and affecting lives and property.
At least 12 districts have been affected, in which over 12 people have lost their lives since August 1.
Bommai said 56 taluks and 885 villages have been affected.
"Preliminary assessment of damage is around 3,000 houses, 80,000 hectares of crops, 3500 km of roads... also damage to electrical infrastructure, transformers, buildings, bridges, minor irrigation tanks are there," he said.
The Ministers said they gave details to the Prime Minister about the measures taken by the state to provide relief to those affected.
They informed him that four NDRF teams and 200 trained SDRF men have been positioned in vulnerable areas and thanked the Centre for reserving four IAF helicopters and deploying the Army for search and rescue operations.
Bommai said the state also suggested to the PM, certain long-term measures like commissioning a special project to study and establish an Integrated Flood Forecasting and Response System for inter-state river basins like in the Krishna Basin to mitigate flood damage.
"We also suggested a special project to study and establish Landslide Hazard Mapping and Development of Early Warning System for high vulnerable areas of western ghats in Karnataka and its adjoining states," he said.
The Home Minister said they requested an additional four NDRF teams to be deployed in Karnataka.
The state also suggested a scheme to handle soil erosion along the western coast on the lines of the National Cyclone Relief Mitigation Project (NCRMP), he added.
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MediaOne TV Facebook page restored after block linked to ‘government request’
Kochi: The official Facebook page of Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV has been restored after being blocked without prior notice, the broadcaster said on Wednesday.
The channel was quoted by Maktoob as saying that the restriction was lifted automatically, with Meta Platforms informing it that the action had been taken following a “government request” which has now expired or been reversed.
The development came shortly after the channel approached the Kerala High Court challenging the blocking of its page, terming it arbitrary and in violation of legal provisions and judicial precedents. The High Court had issued notice to Meta via email hours before the restriction was withdrawn.
In its petition, the channel said access to its Facebook page had been restricted for users in India without citing any specific content or alleged violation. It contended that while individual posts may be taken down under applicable a rule, blocking an entire page goes beyond the scope of such measures.
The incident followed an earlier action taken against the channel in 2022, when the Ministry of Information and transmitting prohibited it from transmitting. It cited national security concerns regarding the Ministry of Home Affairs' refusal of security clearance.
The Supreme Court of India in April 2023 set aside the ban, observing that national security claims cannot be made without substantive basis and that criticism of government policies does not render a media outlet anti-national.
