The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Relief top priority: Dharam Singh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 27, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Relief top priority: Dharam Singh

Staff Reporter

The main task is immediate evacuation and damage control, says Chief Minister

Dharam Singh to lead delegation to Delhi to seek Rs. 500-crore relief package
Tanks and roads bear the brunt of rain havoc
50 tanks and 103 canals breached in Mandya district
Deputy commissioners to coordinate relief work

BANGALORE: The Government has pulled out all the stops to ensure aid and food reaches the nine districts where rain left 26 dead, destroyed standing crops on 60,000 acres and claimed 2,000 livestock.

The Government has prepared an action plan in the event of rain lashing the State again.

Talking to presspersons on Wednesday after a tour of the affected districts on Tuesday and meeting with the crisis management committee headed by Chief Secretary B.K. Das along with Deputy Chief Minister M.P. Prakash, Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh chose to see a silver lining in the unfolding calamity: the water table had risen considerably and once the rain abated, the water bodies would be comfortably water-rich.

Before presspersons could rain questions on him, Mr. Singh said, "first let me update you on what I have seen and what I have done. And what the Government plans to do."

He forestalled all questions about encroachments on tanks in Bangalore and the blocking of natural drains which had caused flooding in several authorised and unauthorised buildings on the outskirts, saying "this is not the time to think about these issues.

The urgent problem is the immediate evacuation and damage control and ensuring there is no loss of life or damage to property." Mr. Prakash rushed to his defence, saying the Government had already begun preparing long-term and short-term measures to address disaster management needs in the future.

Relief package

Mr. Singh said he would soon lead a delegation to New Delhi to seek a relief package of Rs. 500 crores for Bangalore as was done for Mumbai when rains wreaked havoc there a couple of months ago.

Revenue Commissioner S.M. Jamdar said there was crop loss in Mandya, Hassan, Mysore, Kolar, Chamarajanagar, Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural, Tumkur and parts of Raichur districts. Tanks and roads had borne the brunt of the rain havoc, with Mandya alone reporting the breaching of 50 tanks and 103 canals.

While the Chief Minister had announced the release of Rs. 55 crores to all districts for emergency relief work, work has already begun in the districts he toured. The State had released Rs. 75 crores already, Mr. Singh said. Deputy commissioners in the districts had been given charge of coordinating the relief work, and they had been authorised to take decisions on the urgent measures to be taken.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy, who is in charge of Bangalore Urban district, said about 3,000 people had been evacuated from areas, which were still flooded.

Compensation

In Bangalore, the families of those who died were already getting compensation of Rs. 50,000 each. While over 20,000 houses had been damaged in the nine districts, the tally in Bangalore is 8,802.

In Bangalore, 211 houses collapsed and 374 damaged. Twenty-six relief camps, nine in Bangalore Mahanagara Palike limits and 17 in the CMCs had been set up where food and warm clothing and medical care were being provided.

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