BSY says 120 taluks in Karnataka are drought-hit, asks Siddaramaiah to help out farmers

Former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday urged the state government to declare the drought-hit taluks and start relief work immediately, exerting pressure on the Congress regime as soaring temperature combined with failure of monsoon has pushed farmers into hardship.

The veteran BJP leader said there was a drought situation in more than 120 taluks, or about half the state, as most reservoirs are empty, and farmers are facing a distress. I demand that the state government should not delay any more and immediately declare the drought affected areas, give compensation to the farmers and carry out drought relief works,” he posted on X.

According to the data released by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre on Friday, out of 31 districts in the state, 18 districts have had deficit rainfall while it is normal in 13 districts. Three fourths of the state had no rainfall for 24 hours from Thursday morning.


The former CM and BJP have been putting pressure on the Siddaramaiah regime just when the government is tapping all possible sources of revenues to fund the programmes announced based on the five election guarantees. The overwhelming response to the schemes has increased the budget expenditure on these schemes, derailing other conventional programmes.

On Thursday, Bengaluru MP Tejasvi Surya attacked the government saying that the state had released 10 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu when the state had faced 42% deficit in rainfall this monsoon.

With funds shortage biting the government, the CM wrote to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, last week, urging her to release special grants and state-specific grants worth Rs 11,000 as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission.