BENGALURU: Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction Rs 5,000 crore immediately for relief operations, and notify destruction caused by floods in the state as a national calamity.
In a letter addressed to Mr Modi, Mr Gowda said one third of the state's population was affected by unprecedented rainfall and floods in villages of north, coastal, south, and Malnad regions. Besides, the situation was aggravated by release of excess water from dams of states like Maharashtra and Kerala, resulting in floods, landslides and inundation of low lying areas in many areas. This major catastrophe has claimed many lives and in collapse of houses, even loss of livestock and wildlife and extensive damage to crop and infrastructure like roads and bridges. All ten major rivers are in spate and heavy outflow of water from 15 major dams has damaged public and private property. Coastal and Malnad districts which bore the brunt of floods last year have been damaged again by landslides. Thousands of acres of coffee, cardamom, areca nut plantations and paddy crops have been damaged. In addition, many minor irrigation tanks and irrigation canals were damaged, causing flash floods, he added.
The state was reeling under sever drought in over 100 of 176 taluks as well and then Chief Minister Mr H D Kumaraswamy had submitted a memorandum to the Union government for assistance of over Rs 2434s crore as per NDRF/SDRF norms. However, the natural calamity witnessed this year is unprecedented. "I request you to notify this natural disaster as National calamity. Further, I request you to release Rs 5000 crore as interim relief pending submission of final memorandum by the state government, followed by assessment by a high level central team and recommendation of the inter ministerial committee on disaster management,'' he added.
Mr Gowda said he was not drawing any salary, nor eligible for any pension. However, he had around Rs 24 lakhs in his account, from which he has contributed Rs two lakhs to the Chief Minister's relief fund.
