Sitharaman made the announcement following a tour of the district in Karnataka on Friday.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reviewing flood-relief operations in Kodagu. (Photo: Twitter/@DefenceMinIndia)
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman offered Rs 1 crore from her Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds for the flood-affected Kodagu district.
Sitharaman made the announcement following a tour of the district in Karnataka on Friday.
“I am a member of Parliament from Karnataka. I want to offer Rs 1 crore of my MPLAD for Kodagu district,” Sitharaman said.
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The Defence Minister also announced that another Rs 7 crores will be given from the CSR funds of Defence PSUs for relief work.
The Union minister said that she will ask her fellow cabinet ministers for assistance in rebuilding of the district.
“I’ll definitely meet Union minister Nitin Gadkari to discuss the roads. I’ll speak to Home Minister Rajnath Singh because he takes care of National Disaster Relief Funding,” she said.
Sitharaman added that she will update Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the situation in the flood ravaged region in south Karnataka.
“I’ll certainly go back to Prime Minister to give him report of what I’ve seen here,” she said.
Earlier today, Sitharaman, who is the Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, visited a relief and rehabilitation camp run by Seva Bharati at Madikeri and reviewed the situation with district officials.
She interacted with flood-affected children, women and elderly at the camp. Sitharaman was accompanied by district officials and personnel responsible for rehabilitation tasks.
The Defence Minister reportedly assured the district administration of assistance in road construction in hilly areas by a task force of the Indian Army’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO).
According to initial estimates, the cumulative loss in the district is said to be about Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 crore due to heavy damage to infrastructure like roads, bridges, power lines, apart from houses and agricultural land.
The district administration has also ordered hotels, resorts, homestays and guesthouses to cancel bookings till 31 August due to the havoc wrought by heavy rains in the hilly region.
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