GULBARGA: Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh on Thursday said he will lead an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 1. The delegation will ask for a change in the norms for payment of compensation for crops lost in the floods and rehabilitation of people on the lines of the relief measures adopted in the tsunami-hit areas.

He was talking to presspersons before leaving for the temple town of Tuljapur in Maharashtra with his family, including his son Ajay Singh and daughter-in-law Shweta, who were married on Wednesday, to offer prayers. Mr. Singh said the delegation will make a presentation on the extensive loss caused by floods in Belgaum, Bagalkot, Gulbarga, Raichur and Bijapur districts. The problems of rain-affected districts such as Kodagu and sea erosion in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada will also be highlighted, he said.

The delegation will also meet Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who are the members of the empowerment committee that decides on the amount of money to be released to areas affected by natural calamities and seek changes in the norms for spending funds released from the Natural Calamity Fund.

Mr. Singh, who spoke to Mr. Pawar on the phone to fix up the meeting in New Delhi, said he will also talk to the Prime Minister fix a time for the meeting on September 1. The occasion will also be used to submit a detailed memorandum seeking more than Rs. 3,200 crores from the Centre for relief and rehabilitation work in the affected areas as well as to pay compensation to farmers who lost their crops in the floods.

It has become imperative for the Government to seek changes in the norms for spending funds released by the Centre in order to meet the demand for higher compensation for crops lost. The present norms allow for payment of only Rs. 400 a hectare as compensation for crops lost. The amount fixed as compensation for houses damaged is also meagre when compared to the enormity of the damage suffered by the affected people.

He said that although the State Government has decided to use its own resources to increase the compensation for crops lost to Rs. 800 a hectare, it is not commensurate with the loss suffered by farmers, particularly those who had cultivated sugarcane.

The Chief Minister said sugarcane had been cultivated in most of the affected areas in Belgaum and Bagalkot, the two worst-hit districts. Similarly the problem of shifting 47 villages to safer areas is enormous and the existing norms do not provide the Government enough leeway to pay higher compensation for houses lost in the floods and reconstruction, Mr. Singh said.

He will also utilise the opportunity to raise the issue of the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project to divert Mahadayi waters to provide drinking water to Hubli and Dharwad. The Centre has kept sanction for the project in abeyance. The illegal irrigation projects taken up by Andhra Pradesh in the Krishna basin will also be raised, he said.

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