Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 30: Karnataka revenue minister, Kagodu Thimmappa, accused the central government of giving negative response to proposal sent by the state seeking grants to tackle severe drought under which the state is reeling. He was speaking to media persons in the city on Saturday October 29.

The minister informed that a team deputed by the centre to conduct study on drought situation in the state would be arriving in the state on November 2. The team would be split into three groups to undertake tours independently to assess the loss. Officials from the state will accompany the officials and provide information needed by them, he added. 

Thimmappa dislocated that the state had already released Rs 360 crore towards meeting loss of about Rs 386 crore suffered due to drought in districts like Raichur, Kalaburagi, Belagavi and Bidar. "We had sent a proposal seeking drought relief of Rs 1,733 crore  to the centre. Already 110 talks of the state have been declared as drought-hit. 29 more have been identified as suffering from drought," he explained. 

About the controversy surrounding proposed construction of steel bridge meant to relieve traffic burden on airport road and Herbal in the city, Thimmappa said that the opposition parties believe that their  existence itself is to oppose everything that the government does. He recalled that H D Deve Gowda, who was in the opposition then, had expressed opposition to Land Reforms Act when it was tabled. "I had properly replied to his objections," he stated.

About the stay grated against the bridge by National Green Tribunal, Thimmappa said that if  the tribunal was in existence when Linganamakki dam was built, many villages which went under water would have been saved, valuable forest would have not been destroyed, and people would never have been forced to leave their native places.