Crop loss: Second plea for central aid soon

DEODURGA: Stating that the State has suffered huge crop losses in the rabi season due to failure of rains, CM Siddaramaiah said a second memorandum seeking assistance from the Centre to combat drought would be submitted soon.

Speaking to mediapersons here, he stated that more than 30 per cent of the crops valued at Rs 7,000 crore, has been lost in the state. “The quantum of assistance to be sought from the Centre is being worked out”, he added.The CM refuted allegations that the state government had failed to make good use of the assistance provided by the Centre to tackle drought. “The Centre has not only cut grants to the tune of Rs 5000 crores to the state for various Centre-sponsored schemes, it has not released a single paise of the Rs 3800 crore assistance sought in the first memorandum submitted in August to tackle drought. The state has spent over Rs 600 crore for drought relief work. The BJP leaders are spreading the canards that the state government has failed to spend funds released by the Centre,” he contended.

The CM took the BJP to task for trying to sully the image of his government on the issue of licenses for liquor shops. “I did not say the government would issue licenses to 1700 liquor shops. As the sale of spurious liquor has shot up in rural areas due to non-issuance of liquor licenses during the last 23 years, the government is mulling issuing licenses. We have not yet decided to issue licenses as alleged,” he argued.

On the poor progress in utilisation of Rs 1,000 crore grants to Hyderabad Karnataka Region Development Board this year, he warned that action would be taken against the officers if any lapses were noticed.