New Delhi: The Centre on Monday assured the Supreme Court (SC) that the Karnataka Government’s demand with regard to the release of drought relief fund would be dealt with expeditiously after having received green signal for it from the EC.

At the outset of the hearing on Karnataka Government’s plea against the Centre for not releasing funds, Attorney General R. Venkataramani told the SC Bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta that something would happen soon and pleaded that no argument was needed now.

Pointing out that the Model Code of Conduct for the LS polls is in force, Venkataramani said, the Centre had approached the Election Commission, which allowed it to take a decision.

The Court while observing that “It has to happen amicably, given that this is a federal structure,” deferred the hearing to Apr. 29. “Resolve this amicably. We have a federal structure, where both the Union and the States are equal partners”, Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said.

On Apr. 8, the Court had questioned the Centre about the steady stream of States moving the Court against the Union Government. The Court had then asked why the Union Government had sought to enter into a ‘contest’ with water starved Karnataka over its request for drought relief.

In its petition, Karnataka  said that it’s request for financial relief from the Centre to tide over a ‘grave humanitarian crisis’ has hit a wall. The State had sought Rs. 18,171.44 crore under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) six months ago, only to be met with silence. The total estimated loss due to crop damage in the State is Rs. 35,162.05 crore, the petition said.