Telangana: Governor Tamilisai miffed with state for not sending senior official on her visit to flood-affected areas

She said: “I visited flood-affected areas where tribals live because I felt it was my responsibility. I have expressed my concern for the people. Later, I sent a report to the Union Home Ministry.”

The governor disputed the state government’s claim that no funds were released by the Centre for taking up relief works.

“Union Minister G Kishan Reddy has released all the statistics. The Centre has released enough funds. It is not right to say that no help came from the Centre and it is not fair to politicise the issue,” she said.

TRS vs BJP

While the TRS and the BJP have been slugging it out with claims and counter-claims about the funds released, South First analysis has shown that the truth lies somewhere in between.

The TRS claim that not a single rupee had been released to Telangana from NDRF is true. And the BJP is also right to claim that thousands of crores have been released for disaster management since 2014.

The BJP, however, is clubbing all funds allocated to Telangana, including from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDFR), State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF), and the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).

Another piece of information that the BJP is leaving out is that the SDRF is a statutory allocation to all states every year towards which state governments too contribute 25 percent.

The TRS, meanwhile, is steering clear of mentioning SDRF funds to which Centre contributes 75 percent, except for North-eastern and Himalayan states where it provides 90 percent funding.

SDRF is a fund constituted under section 48(1) (a) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (53 of 2005). It is funded by a 75:25 ratio between Centre and State and is part of the Union government’s grant-in-aid to states each fiscal year.