Bengaluru/New Delhi: In order to provide compensation to the farmers who lost their crops during rabi season, an amount of Rs 609.95 crore was released by the Centre to Karnataka on Monday, May 23.

Karnataka became the first State to receive money from the Centre relating to drought relief and compensation to farmers.

Though the Centre had earlier approved Rs 723.23 crore, the Ministry of Finance had released only Rs 606.95 crore due to technical reasons. The remaining amount will be released after some clarification with the State government.

Rabi crop worth Rs 7,209 crore was damaged for which the State asked the Centre an assistance of Rs 1,417 crore.