Belagavi: During a protest staged against the state government for the release of relief funds for the flood-affected, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Tuesday, demanded that the recent floods be declared a “national calamity”.
KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, who led the protest along with former president S S Patil and working president Eshwar Khandre, wrote a letter to state Governor Vajubhai Vala in this regard, according to a report by ANI.
Demanding that the situation in Karnataka be declared a “national calamity”, he wrote “More than 88 persons have lost their lives, still 10 persons are missing; more than 7 lakh people have been rendered houseless… landslide has resulted in complete loss of cultivable land in 5000 hectares; 35,000 km of road is damaged; 2828 bridges and culverts are damaged and collapsed; 57,000 electric poles are uprooted; 14,076 power transformers are damaged; 3724 power lines damaged; thousands of coffee estates have been destroyed.”
He explained that basic infrastructure such as “schools, roads, tanks, canals, culverts, bridges, power lines, telephone lines, railway tracks, hospitals, government buildings etc have been severely damaged” in the floods.
He also pointed out that “no special grants or funds have been released” by the Central Government despite visits by the Union Home Minister, Union Finance Minister and other ministers and surveys by a central team.
Speaking about the condition of the people affected by the floods, he said that “lakhs of are suffering a shortage of food, clothing, medicine, drinking water, fooder for cattle, etc.”
With inputs from ANI
