| Karnataka revenue minister Jagadeesh Shettar told reporters in Dharwad on Monday that Union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel had asked the state government to go ahead with the plans to upgrade the airport. |
| He said that the airport had 356 acres and a joint survey by the Airports Authority of India and the state revenue department revealed that an additional 446 acres would be required for the expansion. Shettar said steps would be taken to acquire additional land. |
| On the flood situation in the state, he said that the state experienced a peculiar situation where the districts hit by floods also faced a drought situation. |
| He said that floods in Bijapur, Gulbarga and Raichur districts were caused by the excess release of water in Krishna, Bhima, Ghataprabha and Malaprabha by Maharashtra. |
| "While some villages in these districts were affected by floods, some villages faced drought," he said. He said the government would soon declare 126 taluks as drought-hit as they received less than normal rains. |
| As many as 688 villages in the state have been flood-hit. The crop loss has been estimated to be over one lakh hectares. |
| Accusing the Centre of giving a step-motherly treatment to Karnataka in providing relief, Shettar said the state had sought Rs 905 crore and 3 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains as relief. "So far, we have not received a single rupee nor any grain from the Centre," he alleged. |
| He pointed out that the Centre had given Rs 400 crore to Andhra Pradesh and Rs 200 crore to Maharashtra and urged the Prime Minister to release interim relief to Karnataka also. |
| The minister declared that the state government would contribute equally to the relief fund. |
| As per the Centre's guidelines, the relief has been fixed at Rs 1,000, Rs 2,500 and Rs 4,000 per hectare depending on the damage. The state government will provide matching grant, he added and said the government had passed an order to this effect on June 12. |
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