State promulgates ordinance on Rs 2500-cr relief spend

The Karnataka government today resolved to promulgate an ordinance to provide for Rs 2,500 crore to take up relief and rehabilitation programmes in flood hit areas of the state. An emergency Cabinet meeting passed the resolution, which was taken to governor H R Bhardwaj by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa this evening, home minister V S Acharya told reporters. Bhardwaj agreed to give his consent, he said.

The ordinance was necessitated by the fact that such an extent of funds was not earmarked in the 2009-10 budget and a session of the state legislature was not currently on where it could have gotten approved.

The proposed amount includes Rs 550 crore that the state has already released and the promise of release of Rs 1,000 crore by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas last week. On how Karnataka would raise funds excluding Central assistance and money already released by the state, Acharya said it would be through re-appropriation of budget allocation and “new levies”, which he, however, did not spell out.

To a question, he said the Cabinet did not discuss new taxation measures to mop up resources to raise funds for flood relief and rehabilitation.

Toll on ore transportation
The government also decided to impose a toll on transportation of iron ore, granite, timber and sand in the state and use its proceeds to improve road infrastructure. Acharya told reporters here that it was decided to impose a toll of Rs 1,000 per lorry per trip in the case of iron ore and Rs 500 each with regard to granite and timber.

The toll would be in the range of Rs 200 to Rs 500 as far as sand transportation is concerned. He said a committee formed to work out details on imposition of the toll in terms of roads that would come under its purview, weight of the loads and things of that nature, would come out with rules and regulations by November 15.

Acharya said it was decided to impose the toll due to the fact that transportation of these goods damages roads. Proceeds from the toll would be used to improve the roads, he added.