Cholera has become a new political flashpoint between the BJP and the Congress, with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman indicating that Bengaluru’s severe water shortage has led to contaminated water reaching people, causing an outbreak.
“It is more worrying that there seems to be an outbreak of Cholera in the city,” said the senior BJP leader, adding that contaminated water leads to diseases that were once considered eradicated from the country.
In a veiled remark, she blamed the Congress government in Karnataka for the alleged outbreak. She claimed that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had halted the central government-funded Jal Jeevan Mission works, which aim to bring drinking water to every house in the country.
She also stated that soon after coming to power in May 2023, the CM had stalled works worth Rs 20,000 crore in the state, including water and irrigation projects, resulting in difficulties for the people. The money was not released because the previous BJP government had released Rs 18,000 crore a few days before the Assembly election was announced. The release of such a large amount had been questioned by the Congress party then.
“When there is a drinking water crisis, the chances of contaminated water reaching people are also more. We often think we have eradicated some diseases. But it saddens to see a global city like Bengaluru suffer from this,” the minister said.
Asked why there has been a delay in the release of funds to Karnataka, which has been facing severe drought and had sought monetary help from the central government under the National Disaster Management Relief Fund, the Union Finance Minister admitted that there has been a delay in processing the request for relief.
Karnataka has been facing one of the worst droughts in 100 years, with 233 out of 236 talukas being declared drought-hit.
Nirmala Sitharaman’s acceptance of the delay contradicts Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement earlier this week in Bengaluru that the drought relief was delayed because the Karnataka government had not shown concern towards its people and had delayed submission of the memorandum to the Centre for relief.
The Finance Minister said that the central government was awaiting clearance from the Election Commission of India in view of the Lok Sabha polls to hold a high committee meeting for the release of funds under NDMA for three major events – Drought-Kharif meeting, 2023, involving Karnataka, AP, and Maharashtra; Cyclone Michaung, which involved Andhra Pradesh; and floods and landslides that affected Assam, Sikkim, and Tamil Nadu.
“I agree it has gone through the processes of going to the high-level committee, the agricultural ministry, and they would have to look at the details and submit it. It has consumed the processing time,” the finance minister said.
Sitharaman said that the central high-level committee has sought clearance from the Election Commission on March 28 to get prior approval to hold the meeting as the Model Code of Conduct is in place.
Asked why the Centre did not speed up the processes to help the people suffering in dire drought conditions, the minister replied: “All I can say is there was no intention to delay.”
Siddaramaiah Hits Back
Rebutting Sitharaman’s statement that financial relief to disasters was the ambit of the State government, using the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) to which the Union Government had released funds in time, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who also holds charge of the Finance Department, said the argument was a “blatant lie” aimed to confuse people.
In a statement, the Chief Minister said the central government seems to have no regard for Karnataka.
“Having failed to take timely action to conduct the High-Level Committee (HLC) and decide on our NDRF claims, they are deploying Central Ministers to come to Bengaluru and give statements based either on half-truths or blatant lies and they think people can be confused,” he said.
In counter to Sitharaman’s claim, he said, “Funds under SDRF are allocated every year and this is shared between the Centre and the State in the ratio of 75:25. SDRF is used for routine disaster relief. When the scale of the disaster is large, a memorandum is submitted to the Centre for funds under NDRF. Drought in Karnataka is unprecedented with 225 out of 250 taluks declared drought affected. The money available under SDRF is not sufficient to provide for crop failure of over 48 lakh hectares belonging to 34 lakh farmers. For providing relief for crop loss as per the norms we need Rs 4,663 crores,” he said.
“We have been judicious in utilizing SDRF funds, especially in combating drought conditions. Yet, with drought-induced damages escalating beyond Rs 37,000 crore, our plea for additional support of Rs 18,171 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) seems to be falling on deaf ears,” he said, adding the Sitharaman is perhaps deliberately confusing the two distinct funds.
Comments
0 comment