Centre approves Rs 4,432 crore additional assistance to Odisha, Karnataka, HP

New Delhi: A high-level committee (HLC) chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah has approved additional central assistance of Rs 4,432.10 crore to Karnataka, Odisha, and Himachal Pradesh from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for natural calamities faced by them.

An official release said on Tuesday that the meeting was held to consider additional central assistance to three states, which were affected by drought (rabi) of 2018-19, avalanches, hailstorms, landslides and cyclone 'Fani' during 2019. The meeting was held on Monday.

"The HLC approved additional central assistance of Rs 4,432.10 crore to three states from the NDRF) -- Rs 3,338.22 crore to Odisha for Cyclone Fani, Rs 1,029.39 crore to Karnataka for drought and Rs 64.49 crore to Himachal Pradesh for avalanches and hailstorm," it said.

The meeting was also attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and other senior officials.

This additional assistance is besides the funds released by the Centre to the states under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

The Centre had released Rs 9,658 crore to all states in 2018-19 and it has released Rs 6,104 crore to 24 states from SDRF so far in this fiscal year.