New Delhi:The Centre on Friday approved an additional financial assistance of Rs 1,813.75 crore to Karnataka and Bihar for the damages caused by the rains and floods in the two states. The approval came after Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the ongoing rescue and relief work of all flood-affected states.
Keeping in view the severity of the flood situation and the fund positions in the State Disaster Relief Fund accounts of Bihar and Karnataka, Shah has approved advance release of Rs 400 crore to Bihar and R 1,200 crore to Karnataka from the National Disaster Relief "on account basis", a statement from the ministry said.
Karnataka and Bihar have apprised the Centre of the paucity of funds in the SDRF account resulting in delay in providing relief assistance to the affected people and requested for release of advance additional financial assistance from the NDRF. Bihar had also requested for advance release of the second installment of the Centre's share of the SDRF for 2019-20.
Shah further approved the advance release of the second installment of the Centre's share of the SDRF amounting to Rs 213.75 crore to Bihar for that period.
The statement said the Centre supplements the efforts of the state governments by providing assistance for relief of immediate nature through the SDRF and the NDRF as per established procedure. The SDRF has been constituted for each state.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa thanked the Centre for releasing Rs 1,200 crore for the flood-ravaged state.
Central Government has released an amount of 1200 Crores for Karnataka in advance from the National Disaster Response Fund. Expressing gratitude for the support to @PMOIndia Sri @narendramodi ji & @HMOIndia Sri @AmitShah ji on behalf of the people of Karnataka.— B.S. Yediyurappa (@BSYBJP) October 4, 2019
Yediyurappa's government had been facing intense criticism over the "delay" in central aid.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the amount will be released on Saturday morning.
Secretary, Expenditure (MoF) has assured me that he shall release the monies tomorrow morning itself. @FinMinIndia @BSYBJP @JoshiPralhad @DVSadanandGowda pic.twitter.com/o0eDlIKHYC— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) October 4, 2019
The central government contributes 75% for general category states and 90% for North-Eastern and hilly states of the SDRF allocation each year. The first charge of relief expenditure is on the SDRF and in the cases of calamities of severe nature, it is supplemented from the NDRF as per established procedure.
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