Send team to Centre for seeking flood relief: Karnataka Cong

Karnataka Congress on Saturday demanded the state government to call for a special session of the legislature to discuss about relief and rehabilitation work to be undertaken in the flood-ravaged districts in the state.

The party leaders demanded Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to convene an all-party meeting and lead a delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and central ministers seeking relief funds from the Centre.

"A week-long special session of the legislature should be convened to discuss only about the floods and no other issues. Before that, an all-party meeting should be held and a delegation sent to the Central government, to meet the Prime Minister and Ministers to seek a major share of relief from the Centre, Congress MLA and former Minister M B Patil told reporters here.

Demanding the calamity to be declared as a "national disaster", he said let the state government postpone certain developmental schemes if need be for a year, as the Chief Minister himself has said the loss was estimated to be Rs 40,000 crore.

Patil, along with former Minister and MLA Satish Jarkihioli, MLAs Ganesh Hukkeri and Anand Nyamagouda, who have toured the flood-hit districts in north Karnataka said they would soon be submitting a memorandum to the Chief Minister.

Stating that no funds for flood relief have come so far from the central government, Patil said, "Instead of politicising it, we will have to work across partylines towards rebuilding the lives of the people who were displaced."