From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Aug 29: With several stretches of the busy Bengaluru-Mysuru highway becoming unusable due to flooding on account of breaches on the canals, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has directed officials to make arrangements to provide alternative road to help the people.
The chief minister has informed media persons that he has already held video conference with the divisional commissioner of Mysuru as well as deputy commissioners and superintendents of police of Mandya and Ramanagara districts to work in close coordination to ensure that seamless travel from Bengaluru to Mysuru is enabled.
Bommai said he has asked chief secretary Vandita Sharma to discuss with national highway authorities to remove all bottlenecks, especially incomplete works on national highways which was mainly responsible for the problems. The deputy commissioners of the districts affected should not wait for national highway authorities to take up the work to check the flooding of major highways.
The chief minister said that he has discussed with the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police 16 severely affected districts and take up immediate relief measures as the state government has already provided Rs 900 crore for taking up relief and rehabilitation measures.
Steps must be taken to provide relief and compensation to people who suffered heavy losses, including collapse or severe damages to houses or standing crops. With almost all the tanks in the State being filled up to the brim or beyond danger levels due to heavy rains in the last few months, there are possibilities of flooding and breaches and urgent steps must be taken to evacuate people, he said.
The chief minister later visited the flood affected places of Ramanagara district and inspected the heavy damages to standing crops.
Higher Education and Ramanagara district in-charge minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Revenue minister R Ashok, former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and MLA Anita Kumaraswamy accompanied the chief minister during his visit to the affected places.