Haliyal: Former minister and MLA R V Deshpande has urged the Union government to immediately release Rs 5,000 crore as interim relief to take up relief and rehabilitation works in flood-affected areas in the State.

Speaking to media persons after attending a school programme here on Friday, Deshpande said that there have been large-scale damages to infrastructure including bridges, schools and government buildings due to flood and the loss is pegged at Rs 38,000 crore. This warrants for Central assistance. The chief minister himself had given the figures and sought for adequate relief. However, the Centre had not released money.

“Crops grown in large tracts of lands have damaged pushing farmers in distress. This apart, a large number of human and animal deaths were also reported. Survey being conducted by the central team is yet to assess the total loss as it needs lot of time. But people need immediate relief,” he said.

During the UPA regime, the Congress had not just confined to release funds under the National Disaster Response and State Disaster Response Fund but had also provided special grants for different departments for the restoration of the infrastructure. Both the State and Central governments are expected to act on the same lines, Deshpande said.

He said, people of the State were actually in deep distress as the rain and floods had inflicted a lot of miseries. As a responsible Opposition, the Congress party had staged protests to draw the attention of the Union government towards people’s problems. But the Centre did not respond. Even the 25 BJP MPs from the State failed to pressurise the government to release interim relief. They simply submitting a memorandum was not enough.

No change in guard

Deshpande said, there would be no change in the guard in the State Congress. There was no such proposal before the party.