Rains claim 74 lives, destroy 26,000 houses in 11 Karnataka districts
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Oct 2: Heavy rains that battered as many as 11 districts of Karnataka during the last 48 hours have claimed at 74 lives and destroyed 26,000 houses causing widespread devastatation in the northern parts.
The weather forecasts have indicated heavy rains in malnad and coastal regions besides northern Karnataka till October 4.
Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, who plunged himself into monitoring the situation caused by rain havoc and relief operations after completing the three-day special training programme at Suttur Mutt near Mysore, described the situation in the state as ``very serious.’’
The chief minister along with the new chief secretary S V Ranganath and other top officials of the government would be undertaking an aerial survey of rain affected north Karnataka districts on Sunday.
Seeking Central assistance in taking up the relief works, especially the help of the Union defence ministry in carrying out rescue operations in the rain-hit and flood affected areas on a war-footing, Yeddyurappa announced the immediate release of Rs 100 crore to the deputy commissioners of the affected districts for taking up relief operations and urgent distribution of foodgrains and other essential requirements.
Out of Rs 100 crore released on Friday, Rs 12 crore each has been released to six most affected districts of Bellary, Raichur, Koppal, Biajpur, Dharwad, and Bagalkote. A sum of Rs 6 crore each has been released to Dharwad, Belgaum and Gulbarga and Rs 5 crore each to Bidar and Haveri districts.
The government has released Rs 41 crore on Thursday. A total of Rs. 300 crore is available with Deputy Commissioners for taking up relief works, he said.
The chief minister mentioned that he had spoken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and explained the grim situation in the State. He has also sought immediate assistance from the Centre to tackle the calamity.
``We will assess the damage in the coming days and submit a memorandum to the Central Government for assistance,’’ he said indicating that the government would release funds for taking up relief operations without waiting for the Central funds.
Yeddyurappa announced the appointed of senior IAS officer, S M Jaamadar, managing director of the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd, as the nodal officer to monitor the relief operations.
The chief minister chaired a high level meeting with top officials of the government and officials of the Defence forces and termed the situation in Raichur, Bellary, Bijapur, Gadag, Bagalkote and Dharwad as ``very grim’’ and said the district administrations had initiated relief measures in al these districts.
A sum of Rs. 1 lakh each has been released to the family of the deceased and it was decided to construct houses under the Ashraya scheme for those families who had lost their houses in rains. The chief minister directed officials to open food camps, spraying the rain affected areas, pressing mobile medical vans to treat the affected people.
"The government is in constant touch with Union Home and Defence Ministries as well as Disaster Management Authority to coordinate the relief operations,’’ he said pointing out that four helicopters of Air Force have been deployed for taking up rescue operations.
Six more helicopters would be pressed into service shortly. Two helicopters each will undertake relief operations in Raichur, Bagalkote, Bijapur, Bellary and Belgaum, he said adding a naval team from Karwar and a rescue team from Arakonam from Tamil Nadu are expected to join the rescue operations.
Though efforts were being made to obtain helicopters from Hyderabad, the chief minister said the helicopters have not been able to take off due to bad weather prevailing there.
As a large number of devotees were marooned in Mantralaya, he sought the help of Andhra Pradesh Government to evacuate them. He also mentioned that the Andhra Pradesh government had been requested release more water from their dams to the sea. At present 10 lakh cusecs of water is being released from various dams, he said.
The chief minister said all officials at the secretary-level and all district in-charge ministers have been instructed to visit rain affected villages. As many as five villages were submerged under waters. One village each in Manvi taluk, Sindhanur taluk, Shiraguppa taluk and two villages in Raichur taluks have been submerged, he said.
Meanwhile, Yeddyurappa said the government had requested the neighbouring Maharashtra Government not to release more waters from the Koyna dam located in that state in view of the heavy downpour and consequent rain havoc in the north Karnataka region.
"At present, 53,000 cusecs of water is being released from the Koyna Dam in Maharashtra,’’ he said.
Due to widespread rains, the inflow into the Almatti Dam has touched 3 lakh cusecs. About 4.5 lakh cusecs of water is being released from the Narayanapura Dam and 1.5 lakh cusecs from Tungabhadra dam, he said.