Mallikarjun Kharge urges PM Modi to send a separate Central team to assess drought-hit Kalyana Karnataka and release Rs 3,705.30 crore in assistance, while seeking updated farmer records, expanded coverage and enhanced support for drinking water and substitute power.
AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately depute a separate Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) to Kalyana Karnataka to assess the extent of drought damage on the ground and review the region’s requirement for relief assistance.
In a detailed letter to the Prime Minister, Kharge also sought the sanction and release of Rs 3,705.30 crore in assistance to Karnataka under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) norms. He said the requested assistance was significantly lower than the total estimated drought-related losses of Rs 18,748.23 crore reported by the state.
Kharge, who hails from the Kalyana Karnataka region, said the area had been “very drastically hit” by drought and therefore required a separate assessment by a Central team. He noted that three IMCTs were scheduled to visit different parts of Karnataka from October 3 to 7 to assess the drought situation.
According to the schedule cited by Kharge, the first team was to visit Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davanagere and Vijayanagara. The second team was scheduled to cover Hassan, Mysuru and Chamarajanagar, while the third team was to visit Yadgir, Raichur, Bagalkot and Koppal.
Kharge said the existing assessment arrangements did not adequately address the specific circumstances of Kalyana Karnataka and requested the Centre to send another team to the region without further delay.
“I request that another team may be deputed specifically to visit Kalyana-Karnataka without further delay to verify the drought damage on the ground,” Kharge said in his letter.
The Congress president also urged the Prime Minister to sanction the full Rs 3,705.30 crore sought by Karnataka under NDRF and SDRF norms without any reduction. He said the assistance was necessary considering the scale of agricultural and livelihood losses reported across the state.
Kharge further raised concerns over the method used to identify small and marginal farmers eligible for input subsidy. He requested that Karnataka’s updated Bhoomi land records be used for calculating assistance instead of relying on the 2015-16 Agriculture Census.
According to Kharge, continued dependence on the older Census data could result in eligible farmers being left out of drought relief measures. He therefore urged the Centre to adopt the latest available land records to ensure that assistance reaches farmers who currently meet the eligibility criteria.
The AICC president also sought the inclusion of 11 additional taluks that are currently undergoing Ground Truthing. He requested that any other taluks found eligible during the remaining weekly assessments before the end of the Kharif 2026 season should also be incorporated into the same continuing drought event for the purpose of Central assistance.
Kharge argued that treating the affected areas as part of a single continuing drought event could help avoid repeated claims and reduce delays in the processing of relief requests by the state government.
Another issue highlighted in the letter was drinking water security. Kharge sought enhanced Central assistance for ensuring adequate drinking water supplies in drought-affected areas. He also sought support towards the cost of substitute power, citing low reservoir levels in the Cauvery basin and hydel catchment areas.
Kharge said the drought had caused severe distress among more than 31 lakh farming families across Karnataka. He urged the Centre to treat the state’s request with urgency and ensure that assistance was provided on the basis of the documented requirement.
“The agrarian community of Karnataka faces a crisis of existential proportions. Drought relief is a humanitarian imperative and ought not to be governed by political differences between the Centre and State,” Kharge said.
He urged Prime Minister Modi to accord the state’s memorandum the highest priority and personally intervene to ensure that the requested assistance was sanctioned and released without further delay.
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Kharge said an early response from the Centre would help provide timely support for affected communities, including sustenance, fodder, drinking water and livelihood security.
The Congress president also said he had separately written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking similar intervention from the Centre regarding the drought situation in Karnataka.
