Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Wednesday, 20 December, called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and requested him to sanction early drought relief of ₹18,177.44 crore to the state. Wednesday’s meeting comes after Siddaramaiah met PM Narendra Modi over drought relief on Tuesday.

Siddaramaiah, who met Shah in his office in the Parliament complex, said a central meeting of the high-level committee should be convened at the earliest to approve the drought relief for Karnataka, an official statement said.

The Chief Minister informed in the meeting that the small and marginal farmers are more impacted because of the drought in 223 taluks out of 236 in the state. The crops sown in 48.19 lakh hectare of farm land have been impacted.

Memorandum submitted three months ago

Siddaramaiah also said that the state government had submitted a memorandum seeking ₹18,177.44 crore drought three months back and requested the Union government to expedite the matter.

While sanctioning the drought relief, the Chief Minister requested the Union government to consider the latest farmers’ population data instead of the 2015-16 data, the statement added.

The state government had submitted its memorandum on 22 September. Consequently, a central team visited the state in October and submitted a report.

Siddaramaiah had, on Tuesday, met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and requested him to release drought relief funds at the earliest. He was accompanied by State Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Siddaramaiah stated that Karnataka has assessed the crop damage and is seeking an input subsidy of ₹4,663.12 crore from the National Disaster Response Funds (NDRF).

48.19 lakh hectares of crops suffered losses

Around 48.19 lakh hectares of agriculture and horticulture crops have suffered losses ranging from 33 percent to 100 percent, with a majority of the areas reporting a loss of more than 80 percent.

Karnataka has a robust digital database of farmers under the system called FRUITS (Farmers Registration & Unified Beneficiary Identification System). This system is Aadhaar-enabled and is, therefore, reliable.

PM-Kisan uses the FRUITS identification number to make the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) payment in Karnataka.

Karnataka’s request is to consider the area under SMF holdings as per the Aadhaar-enabled FRUITS digital database and release the relief funds, Siddaramaiah’s letter stated.

The 2015-16 agriculture census shows that in Karnataka, 43.94 percent of the land area belongs to SMF holdings. However, as per the FRUITS database, 83 percent of the land is covered by holdings that belong to small and marginal farmers.

The chief minister urged Prime Minister Modi to direct a high-level committee under the Union Home Ministry to consider the quantum of the area under the SMF holdings as per the state’s FRUITS database.

Three memoranda submitted

The first memorandum seeking relief of ₹4,860.13 crore was submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture on 22 September, 2023. The government of India thereafter deputed the Inter-ministerial Central Team (IMCT), which visited the state from 4 to 9 October, 2023.

Out of the 236 taluks in the state, 223 have been declared as drought-affected, as per the procedure laid down in the Drought Manual of 2020.

Out of them, 196 are severely affected. Subsequently, 21 more taluks were declared as severely affected by drought.

The supplementary memorandum was submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture on 20 October 2023, seeking ₹17,901.73 crore from the NDRF, which included a gratuitous relief claim of ₹12,577.86 crore.

Following the declaration of drought on 4 November 2023, in an additional seven taluks, another supplementary memorandum was submitted on 15 November, seeking a total claim of ₹18,177.44 crore of relief funds for the state, Siddaramiah’s letter stated.

Source - https://thesouthfirst.com