By IANS,
Bangalore: The Karnataka government Thursday advised banks to reschedule loans of people, especially farmers, who were affected by the recent rain havoc and flash floods in northern districts of the state.
“The banks have agreed to reschedule the loans of the flood-affected as per the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa told reporters after the state-level bankers’ committee meeting here.
The banks have also been told to sanction fresh loans and facilitate encashment of relief cheques issued by the state government to the flood victims.
An official delegation led by the chief minister will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi Oct 20 to apprise them of the relief and rehabilitation being undertaken in the flood-hit districts.
“We will submit a memorandum on the huge losses to crops and damage to houses and infrastructure due to the floods for additional funds from the central government,” Yeddyurappa said.
A central team is scheduled to visit the flood-hit districts Oct 21-23 to assess the damage and destruction.
“The state has already released about Rs.1,000 crore for relief and rehab activities in all the 15 affected districts,” Yeddyurappa said.
A special session of the state legislative assembly will be convened in the first of week of November to discuss the impact of the floods and measures taken to rehabilitate the affected people.
“The dates of the 15-day assembly session will be decided in the next cabinet meeting. By then, we hope to restore near normalcy in the affected districts,” the chief minister noted.
The state government has already sought Rs.16,500 crore from the central government under the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) and the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) as the loss from the devastation is estimated to be about Rs.20,000 crore.
The prime minister Oct 10 announced an interim relief of Rs.1,000 crore to Karnataka to expedite the relief measures and assured the state government that funds would not be a constraint in rehabilitating the affected people.