Siddaramaiah govt turned blind eye to flood situation, forced people to celebrate Dusshera on streets: K'taka BJP

Bengaluru, Oct 3 (IANS) The Karnataka BJP on Friday slammed the Congress-led government, accusing it of turning a blind eye to the flood situation in the state and forcing people rendered homeless by heavy rain to celebrate the Dusshera festival on the streets.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, R. Ashoka, during his visit to Belagavi district to assess crop loss and flood damage, said, "The state government is in a deep slumber. The BJP delegation is visiting Belagavi and Vijayapura districts today. People are unable to celebrate Dusshera in their homes, and the state government has compelled them to celebrate on the streets due to floods and heavy rain in the region."

Ashoka said, "Siddaramaiah and his group are always obsessed with caste. Creating conflict among castes and religions seems to be their priority. Siddaramaiah has neglected disasters in the state. There are landslides in the Malnad (hilly) region, roads are impassable, and people have lost their homes."

He added, "After the BJP announced teams to visit flood-affected areas, CM Siddaramaiah woke up to the situation. He is repeating the same dialogue that the Centre should come to help. I want to ask him - he, who has been a senior politician and CM twice - should have common sense. He should first get crop loss reports from every district. What information has he received?"

Ashoka further questioned, "The CM should meet the Union Agriculture Minister with the report, and then meet the Union Home Minister to demand a team to assess the losses. Have they done this? Has any minister taken any initiative?"

He alleged, "The CM has claimed that 10 lakh hectares of crops have been damaged. That is a lie. The loss is much higher.

Ashoka slammed Siddaramaiah, saying, at a time when people are celebrating the festival on the streets, CM Siddaramaiah is "enjoying" Dusshera celebrations in Mysuru.

Recalling his tenure as Revenue Minister under B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai governments, Ashoka stated, "We proposed Rs 3 lakh compensation for damaged houses, and they allotted Rs 5 lakh - more than requested. As per the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF), earlier the provision was Rs 95,000, now increased to Rs 1.20 lakh.

"For houses just inundated with water, we provided Rs 10,000 within 24 hours and distributed food kits to every home, without waiting for central funds. What has the Congress-led government done?" Ashoka said.

He added, "They claim a survey report regarding damage caused by floods is needed - but that will take four months or even a year."

Responding to queries on farmers not receiving compensation, Ashoka said, "The Congress-led government is busy conducting the caste census. Officers and Deputy Commissioners are preoccupied with it. Special packages must be provided for farmers who lost long bean, green gram, and soybean crops. The state should have requested a central delegation to assess the situation, as we used to during our tenure - they immediately sent a team."

Slamming the state government, he said, "Their own MLAs are saying no funds have been allocated for road development in their constituencies. Roads across the state are full of potholes, and the situation in the capital Bengaluru is even worse."

--IANS

mka/svn