Karnataka Government decision to allocate additional amount $Rs 10 lakh crore to rehabilitate landslides in Wayanad district in Kerala has drawn criticism from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which has questioned the timing of the move before the Kerala Assembly elections.
The grant, included in the third and final batch of supplementary estimates for 2025-2026 presented at the association on Monday, aims to support families affected by the 2024 landslide in Mebadi.
This represents the second such allocation by the Congress-led government in the current fiscal year. In August 2025, during the first supplementary estimates, $Rs 10 crore has been allocated to help around 100 affected families in the same district.
Opposition Leader R Ashoka, in a post on X, referred to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as the “Chief Minister of Keralam” and claimed that the money was aimed at “pleasing the leaders of the high command and saving his chair”. He added that if Karnataka had a “broad-hearted and sensitive” Chief Minister, every constituency in the state would have received adequate funding, saying Kannadigas “are not as fortunate as the people of Kerala”.
The decision follows an earlier controversy in February 2024, when the Karnataka government announced compensation $15 thousand pounds for the victim of an elephant attack in Wayanad.
Defending the latest allocation, Siddaramaiah said the decision was guided by humanitarian considerations. He said, “There is no basis for the criticism leveled by the opposition parties. This is a decision taken from a purely humanitarian perspective. We are in a federal system. It is our duty to help our neighboring countries that are in distress. This should not be viewed in the political dimension.”
The supplementary estimates also include provisions for other expenses. Additional $20 lakhs has been allocated as reward to senior advocate Kapil Sibal to appear on behalf of the Karnataka government before the Supreme Court in connection with a writ petition. far $40 lakhs were allotted for his SLP (Civil) appearance.
In addition, $Rs 10 crore has been allocated for the visit of Karnataka government delegates to Davos Kloster, Switzerland, to attend the 2026 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.
