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Telangana, Centre spar over flood relief
Union minister for tourism and culture G Kishan Reddy on Friday reacted strongly to the criticism from the TRS leaders, particularly party working president and state industries minister K T Rama Rao that Telangana had not received a single rupee from the Centre under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) since 2018.
As a four-member central team toured the flood-ravaged areas of Telangana’s Bhadradri-Kothagudem district on Friday to assess the damage caused due to recent floods to the Godavari river, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government and the central government have entered in a war of words over the flood assistance to the state.
Union minister for tourism and culture G Kishan Reddy on Friday reacted strongly to the criticism from the TRS leaders, particularly party working president and state industries minister K T Rama Rao that Telangana had not received a single rupee from the Centre under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) since 2018.
KTR, as the state minister is called, quoted from a reply given by Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai in Lok Sabha on July 19, and said the Centre was providing huge funds to flood-affected areas in the BJP-ruled States and sending only inspection teams to non-BJP ruled States affected by floods.
“Since 2018, till date, ₹3,250 crore was allocated to Bihar, ₹4,530 crore to Madhya Pradesh, ₹6,490 crore to Karnataka and ₹1,000 crore to Gujarat under NDRF funds. But not a single rupee was given to Telangana. When the Centre can allocate ₹15,270 crore to four BJP-ruled states, why can’t they provide special funds to Telangana in a similar way?” KTR asked.
Reacting to the minister’s criticism, the Union minister said the Centre had released ₹2,970.87 crore to Telangana in the last eight years and more than ₹1,500 crore since 2018 for the overall disaster relief.
KTR, however, accused Reddy of trying to confuse the people by quoting figures from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), which was the rightful share of Telangana under Article 280. He reminded that the state was demanding special funds under NDRF, as was done in the case of the Gujarat floods in 2021 when Modi personally conducted the survey and released ₹1,000 crore under NDRF.
He said the SDRF was a constitutional right of every state. “The SDRF is one of the ways states get back the taxes paid by them to the Centre,” he asserted.
Reddy shot back at KTR, saying it was the primary responsibility of the state, not the Centre, to take up relief measures during natural disasters using the SDRF, constituted under Section 48 (1) (a) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. He reminded that the Centre contributes 75% of SDRF allocation for general category states.
He said additional financial assistance would be provided under the NDRF as a supplement to the SDRF only in case of disasters of a severe nature, which includes an assessment based on the visit of an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT).
“In the event of a calamity of a severe nature, where the requirement of funds for relief operations is beyond the funds available in the SDRF account, additional Central assistance is provided from NDRF,” Reddy said.
Referring to the criticism from the Telangana government that the Centre had not released even a single rupee during 2020-21 floods in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits, the Union minister said out of ₹599 crores released under the SDRF, the Centre’s share was ₹449 which was released in two instalments.
LOSS DUE TO GODAVARI FLOODS
Meanwhile, the Telangana government has submitted a report to the Centre, stating that the preliminary estimations of the loss caused due to floods to the Godavari were around ₹1,400 crore. The state government requested that the Centre release ₹1,000 crore as immediate financial assistance.
A four-member Central government team, led by the deputy secretary of the Union ministry of finance, Parthiban P Manoharan, visited the flood-ravaged areas of Bhadrachalam and interacted with the affected people and district officials.
The team inspected the roads, houses and agriculture fields damaged by floods in Bhadrachalam, Burgampahad and other areas. They made a preliminary estimate of the damages caused to cotton, chilli and other crops in the villages. The district officials told the team that the tentative loss of crops and properties was around ₹129 crore.
On Thursday, the team members visited the affected areas of Jayashankar Bhupalpally and Mulugu districts to inspect the damages caused due to floods. Similarly, another three-member official team led by Union Home Ministry Joint Secretary Sourav Roy visited various rain and flood-affected areas in the Nizamabad district.
