Siddaramaiah Urges Modi to Address Karnataka Issues

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday expressed displeasure before Prime Minister Narendra Modi particularly against Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman over drastic cut in NABARD short term agricultural credit limit to Karnataka, raw deal to State under 15^th Finance Commission among others. Nirmala Sitharaman represents Karnataka in Rajya Sabha.

At the meeting, Chief Minister apprised Modi over inordinate delay in granting permission for two drinking water projects-Mekedatu and Kalasa-Banduri Nala proposed by the State Government by the Ministries of Jal Shakthi and Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change and sought his immediate intervention over the issues of Karnataka.

During the meeting with the Prime Minister in New Delhi, the Chief Minister drew the attention of the Prime Minister over a drastic cut in the issue of short term agricultural credit limit to Karnataka by NABARD and apprised the Prime Minister that the cut in agricultural credit limit will adversely impact the lives of farmers.

He pointed out NABARD sanctioned Rs 5,600 crore during 2023-24 and it has come down to Rs 2,340 crore in 2024-25 which is reduction by about 58 percent and appealed to Modi to direct Union Finance Minister to rectify the anomaly so that farmers in Karnataka continue to receive soft agricultural loans.

The Chief Minister wanted the Prime Minister to accord approval to the assistance for Upper Bhadra Project under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme and UBP is of utmost importance to provide irrigation to parched farm lands of districts in Central Karnataka. CM asked Modi to direct Niramala Sitharaman to release Rs 5,300 crore budgetary announcement for Upper Bhadra Project.

The Chief Minister pointed out to Modi that Jal Shakti Ministry and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change have not cleared the proposal for Kalasa-Banduri Nala project while Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is yet to give environment clearance for construction of a balancing reservoir across River Cauvery in Ramnagar district.

Siddaramaiah told the Prime Minister that delay in giving needed permission for the two water projects has caused hurdles in the way of the projects and stressed that the both the drinking water projects since Karnataka is an arid region and to cash in on the irrigation potential. He asked Modi to direct two Ministries to accord clearances for both the projects expeditiously.

Later at a press conference, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah questioned the silence of Union Minister of Large Scale Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy and former Prime Minister and Rajya Sabha member H.D. Devegowda, both from Karnataka, over ‘injustice’ to Karnataka.