Centre approved advance release of Rs 400 crore to Bihar, Rs 1200 crore to Karnataka

The Centre on Friday approved an additional financial assistance of Rs 1813.75 crore to Karnataka and Bihar for the damages caused by the rains and floods in the two states, the Home Ministry said on Friday.

The approval came after Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the ongoing rescue and relief work of all flood-affected states.

Keeping in view the severity of flood situation and the fund positions in the State Disaster Relief Fund account of Bihar and Karnataka, the home minister has approved advance release of Rs 400 crore to Bihar and R 1,200 crore to Karnataka from the National Disaster Relief "on account basis", a home ministry statement said.

Karnataka and Bihar have spoken of of the shortage of funds in the SDRF account resulting in delay in providing relief assistance to the affected people and requested for release of advance additional financial assistance from the NDRF. Bihar had also requested for advance release of the second installment of centre's share of the SDRF for the year 2019-20.

Amit Shah further approved the advance release of 2nd installment of centre's share of the SDRF amounting to Rs 213.75 crore to Bihar for the year 2019-20.

The statement said the Centre supplements the efforts of the state governments by providing assistance for relief of immediate nature through the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) as per established procedure. The SDRF has been constituted for each state.

The central government contributes 75 per cent for general category states and 90 per cent for North-Eastern and hilly states of the SDRF allocation each year.

The first charge of relief expenditure is on the SDRF and in the cases of calamities of severe nature, it is supplemented from the NDRF as per established procedure.