Supreme Court Steps In: Karnataka Secures 3,500 Crore Drought Relief Package

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the central government has agreed to release a drought relief fund to address the depleted groundwater levels in the state. The amount sanctioned is Rs 3,498.82 crore, following the Union Finance Ministry’s decision to release funds for disaster relief following the Supreme Court’s intervention.

This development comes after prolonged legal battles and a series of petitions as the Siddaramaiah-led government contended with the central government over the allocation of disaster relief funds. Siddaramaiah expressed his gratitude to the Supreme Court but criticized the amount sanctioned as “woefully inadequate,” stating that the state had originally requested Rs 18,000 crore.

In March, the Karnataka government appealed to the Supreme Court to direct the Centre to release funds from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to assist the state in managing the crisis. Earlier clashes between Siddaramaiah and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over this issue underscored the tensions, with Siddaramaiah accusing the BJP-led central government of neglecting the state’s needs, while Shah attributed the delay to the Congress government’s slow submission of relief fund proposals.

Reports in March highlighted severe water scarcity in Bengaluru, with a deficit of 500 million liters per day (MLD) against the city’s actual requirement of 2,600 MLDs. Approximately half of Bengaluru’s borewells, totaling 6,900 out of 14,000, were reported to have dried up.