Karnataka’s drought-affected taluks have risen to 226 after nine more were added to the list, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said on Wednesday, as the state prepares a final memorandum seeking relief from the Centre.
Parameshwara, who also holds the Revenue portfolio, said ground-truthing had been completed in the nine newly identified taluks. Assessment under the Trigger-1 criteria is still underway in some of the remaining taluks, and those that qualify will be taken up for ground-truthing, he said.
The final memorandum is expected to be ready within a week. It will detail drought-related losses across Karnataka and determine the amount of relief to be sought from the Centre under the National Disaster Response Fund guidelines.
“Last year, we sought around Rs 18,000 crore in drought relief. This year, losses have occurred across almost the entire state, and 226 taluks have already been declared drought-affected. If more taluks qualify, the losses will increase further,” Parameshwara said.
The expanding list places the assessment process at the centre of the state’s relief request. Taluk-level declarations are based on the state’s evaluation of drought conditions, while ground-truthing and Trigger-1 assessments are being used to establish the extent of damage before the memorandum is finalised.
Parameshwara said he and Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had urged the Union government to relax the NDRF norms governing drought relief. The Union Agriculture Minister had assured them that the request would be examined, but Karnataka had not received any further response so far, he said.
The state government will decide whether to send a delegation to Delhi after the memorandum is completed. The delegation is expected to include the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and other representatives, who would submit the memorandum and seek appropriate relief from the Centre.
The drought assessment comes as Karnataka continues to determine the financial scale of losses across the state. The final figure will depend on the number of taluks that qualify, the results of the ongoing assessments and the loss calculations included in the memorandum. No final relief amount has yet been announced.
Parameshwara also said the state Cabinet would discuss the Karnataka High Court’s recent verdict on reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at its meeting on Thursday. The Cabinet will consider whether to appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court or seek inclusion of the reservation law in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
The High Court had struck down provisions of a 2022 state law that increased reservation for Scheduled Castes from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for Scheduled Tribes from 3 per cent to 7 per cent, holding that the enhanced quota breached the 50 per cent ceiling. Further action on the issue will follow the Cabinet’s decision, Parameshwara said.
