Cong protest State,Centre's "failure" in handling floods,

The Congress in Karnataka on Thursday held a day-long protest against the state and central governments alleging that they had failed in handling drought and floods in the state.

The party also petitioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the situation be declared as "national calamity" and sought immediate release of Rs 5000 crore as interim relief.

In the petition to the Prime Minister through the Governor Vajubhai Vala, the Congress leaders have also demanded an aerial survey by the Prime Minister immediately, and special grant for drought-affected areas for this year.

In a letter handed over to the Governor, the Congress delegation including KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao and CLP leader Siddaramaiah, said: "...the government of India has not yet declared the situation in Karnataka as national calamity.

No funds or special grants have been released out of national calamity fund."
Claiming that a report on damages has not been sent by the state to the Centre, and after "lapse" of weeks the union government had sent a team of officials, it said, "the study team made only flying visits to some flood-affected areas and they failed to assess real damages and to obtain the opinion of people in affected areas."
Also, highlighting the situation in drought-hit regions, the Congress said unfortunately, in spite of severe floods and drought, the state government has failed to deal with the situation and take the relief work on "war footing."