By IANS,
Bangalore : External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Monday he would prevail upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi to grant more relief to flood-hit Karnataka from the National Calamity Contingency Fund.
“I will meet the prime minister in New Delhi Wednesday and apprise him of the colossal damage caused by heavy rains and flash floods in north Karnataka for speedy release of funds from NCCF to the state,” Krishna, a former chief minister of the state, told reporters here.
“I will also call on Sonia Gandhi and brief her about the rain havoc in the state for greater central relief to the affected people,” he said.
Extending full support to the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party government in its efforts to rehabilitate the affected people, Krishna said all the central ministers from the state would strive their best to help the state authorities in providing relief to the flood-hit.
Besides Krishna, other central minsiters from Karnataka are Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, and Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa.
The rains — and resulting floods — for three days since Wednesday in 15 of the state’s 29 districts have killed 195 people, damaged over 200,000 houses, left over a million homeless and destroyed standing crops in hundreds of hectares.