Centre Denied Rs 3,370 Crore Relief For 2018 Drought: Gujarat Minister

The Gujarat government on Tuesday informed the legislative Assembly that the centre had decided not to grant financial assistance of Rs 3,370 crore to the state as relief for the 2018 drought.

The state has also sought Rs 7,239.47 crore as relief for the damages suffered due to a flood in 2020, but has not received any reply on the same, state Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel said in a written reply in the Assembly.

In a letter dated January 8, 2019, Gujarat had sought an assistance of Rs 3,370.31 crore from the centre to carry out relief works in the drought-affected regions of the state, the minister stated in the reply to a query raised by MLA Bhagabahi Barad.

The centre, on February 20, 2019, had conveyed that the state does not qualify for any fund, as 50 per cent of the funds available to it under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) is more than Rs 127.60 crore decided for it by a high- level committee of the National Disaster Response Fund, he said.

The government had in 2018 declared 3,367 villages of 51 talukas in the state as drought affected. Mr Patel further said the state government is yet to receive a reply on Rs 7,239.47 crore sought as relief for the 2020 flood.

The minister also said that as against Rs 5,996.37 crore spent by the state government from the calamity relief fund between April 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020, the centre had granted Rs 2,660.75 crore in the fund during the same period. As on December 31, 2020, the state is left with Rs 93.94 crore in the same fund, he said.

As against the provision of Rs 1,765 crore for the SDRF Fund in 2020-21, the government allotted an additional fund of Rs 806.60 crore due to the need arising out of the agriculture relief package, Mr Patel said.