Karnataka: Senior Congress MLA asks government to declare Karnataka floods as natural disaster
Vijayapura: Describing the recent flood and torrential rains as one of the most devastating natural calamities in the history of the district, veteran Congress MLA, Yeshwantraigouda Patil has demanded the Central Government to declare it as ‘Natural Disaster’.
Addressing presspersons on Tuesday, he said that the district has witnessed heavy loss to properties and the crop. The neighboring districts such as Kalaburagi too have suffered similar losses due to the heavy rains he added.
“Since Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa is coming for an aerial survey of the flood situation in Vijayapura on Wednesday, after taking stock of the situation, he should urge the Central Government to declare these floods as a natural disaster. Since the State government is facing acute financial crises, it may not be in a position to allocate adequate funds for relief operations. If declared as a national disaster, the Central government can offer funds to help the affected people of this region”, Patil said.
Referring to the reports of the State government deciding to borrow Rs. 36,000 crore from banks to meet financial deficit, Patil opined that these funds should be used to help the victim by keeping other development projects pending for some time as they are not more important than bringing the life of affected people back to normal.
Blaming no coordination between the officials between Maharashtra and Karnataka for discharging huge quantum of water from dams of Maharashtra to Karnataka, that led to major crop loss, Patil said that the Central Government should formulate a national policy on monitoring the discharge of water from dams.
“Due to the lack of coordination between States on discharging water from the dams, poor people suffer as water enters their habitation and farms. Since discharging of water from major dams is an inter-State issue, the Central Government should form a separate policy for keeping a watch over the discharge to prevent damage to people and properties that happens due to unscientific discharge of water”, he said.
Besides urging the Central Government to frame a monitoring policy, the MLA suggested the State government to deploy a State’s official in Maharashtra during monsoon season to keep track of the discharge of water from their dams in Krishna and Bhima Rivers.
Lamenting that till today, there is no exact data available on the quantum of water Maharashtra has discharged from its dams into Karnataka, Patil demanded a fact-finding committee to be set to find out the truth.
“We kept receiving conflicting reports of the quantum of water discharged by Maharashtra. Different officials gave different figures. The government must find the exact data and take action against officials who did not keep track of the release”, he said.
Blaming the officials of Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited for failing to discharge the water at the right time from Sonna Barrage, he said that if the water was discharged at the right time, it would have saved several properties from damage.
Taking exception to the government’s decision of giving only Rs. 10,000 as interim relief to affected people, Patil said that it should be at least Rs. 1 lakh to rebuild the houses and cover the loss.
To a question, he said that during his meeting with the CM on Wednesday, he will present all his demands.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak booked in Punjab
Chandigarh (PTI): Punjab Police is learnt to have booked Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, who recently defected to the BJP, sources said on Saturday.
Two FIRs have been lodged against Pathak under non-bailable sections, they said.
No further details about the FIRs have been disclosed yet.
Pathak was among the seven Rajya Sabha MPs who had quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the BJP.
On April 24, the AAP suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs -- Pathak, Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal -- quit, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
Six of the seven MPs were from Punjab.
Later, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially accepted their merger with the BJP, reducing AAP's strength in the Upper House to three.
