Cong to intensify stir over 'failure' to give relief to flood,

Stepping its attack against the BJP governments at the centre and the state over its "failure" to provide relief to flood and drought affected areas in the state, Congress in Karnataka on Wednesday decided to intensify its agitation in the coming days over the issue.

State Congress leaders and MLAs staged a protest in front of Gandhi statue at Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat here, and hit out both central and the state governments.

A Congress Legislature Party meeting ahead of the protest passed seven resolutions,in which it was decided to pressurize both governments to provide relief to the flood and drought affected people on a "war footing".

The CLP expressed grief over the deaths of people due to floods and decided to organise region wise agitations, demanding immediate relief.

Among other resolutions passed were immediate steps to waive loans taken by farmers from nationalized and cooperative banks due to floods and drought, convening a special assembly session in Belagavi at once to discuss the situation and pressurizing the state government to declare affected districts as "drought affected" forthwith.

As many as 103 taluks in 22 districts were affected due to the floods last month, in which over 80 people were killed.

Around seven lakh people were shifted to safe areas and thousands of houses were damaged.

Seven districts have been affected by drought.

Reacting to the Congress' protest, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said the party was indulging in politics and trying to create confusion as they did not have anything else to target his government.

"They are doing politics...This is the same (flood) situation in about six to seven states. Funds will be released to all the states at the earliest (by the centre).

A senior minister said Yediyurappa was likely to visit Delhi on Friday to discuss with the centre, the speedy sanction of flood release funds
"At the meeting, we discussed the floods in various parts of Karnataka. MLAs from all parts of the state expressed dissatisfaction about the relief work being undertaken."