There was unintentional delay in drought relief to K’taka: Nirmala

Bengaluru: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman admitted on Saturday that there was indeed a delay in providing drought relief to Karnataka but emphasised that it was not intentional, attributing it to the extensive procedural requirements involved in the process.Sitharaman’s acknowledgement comes nearly a week after Union home minister Amit Shah alleged that the delay in releasing the funds to Karnataka was because the state government was late by three months in submitting the proposal.“The delay in assessing the requests from states affected by natural disasters has been caused by the involvement of multiple departments and a prescribed lengthy process. However, it was not intentional. That’s all I can say,” she told a press conference in Bengaluru.She also added that delays in such matters are “completely avoidable.”The Congress government in the state has been accusing the Centre of delaying the release of drought relief despite it submitting a memorandum four months ago. It has even knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court, seeking direction to the Centre to release funds immediately.Sitharaman said there are 12 notified disasters for which the Centre extends assistance to states in the form of NDRF funds. But the process involved is “very lengthy”.“First, the inter-ministerial central team visits the states, assesses the damage, and gives a report to the high-level committee (HLC). The report is then sent to the ministries concerned. In matters related to drought, it will be the Union agriculture ministry. In turn, the ministry assesses the claims again and submits its report back to the high power committee,” she explained.“This process took time. Now that this entire process is over, the sub-committee on the national executive committee (SC-NEC) on March 28, 2024, wrote to the Election Commission (as the model code of conduct for general elections is in place), seeking its permission to convene a meeting of HLC. Once the permission comes, HLC will sit and disburse funds,” she said.She said there was no provision in the NDRF Act for the Centre to provide any special assistance or interim relief to states. “So the Centre cannot release funds as and when calamities occur and states submit requests. For such purposes, states have the State Disaster Response Funds, for which the Centre contributes a major share. In 2023, Karnataka was allocated Rs 928 crore towards SDRF, of which the Centre’s share was Rs 697 crore. The state can always utilise these funds for providing immediate relief,” she said.She also claimed that the Centre has been at the forefront of helping farmers.“Under the PM Kissan Samman Yojana, farmers are getting Rs 6,000 every year. They have also gotten their crop insurance claims settled for the last year. All this is being done by the Centre. This being the case, why pick up the delay in releasing drought relief and blame the Centre?” she said.