While Kerala witnesses the worst floods in its history, the Modi government is not willing to disburse sufficient funds for the affected people in the southern state.
As on Monday, the central government released Rs 320 crore as disaster relief fund to Kerala for 2018-19, which is one-fifteenth of the amount that the government spent on its advertisements and publicity-related activities.
The state government of Kerala demanded an immediate relief fund of Rs 1,200 crore from Modi government. However, the union government decided to release only Rs100 crore.
In July, a report shared by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Rathore, in Parliament revealed that the central government has spent over Rs. 4,880 crore in advertisements through electronic, print and other media since 2014-15.
It seems that a statue of Sardar Patel is ten times more valuable for the Modi government than the lives of the lakhs of people affected by Kerala floods. The Centre is spending Rs 2000 crore on ‘Statue Of Unity’ Of Sardar Patel in Gujarat, which will be inaugurated by the prime minister in October.
Furthermore, the Modi government sanctioned a whopping sum of Rs 1,200 crore to the Uttar Pradesh government to organise the Kumbh mela, to be held in January 2019.
Sadly, the government continues to spend an exorbitant amount on PM Modi’s publicity but willingly ignores the plight of Keralites.