Times News Network

Mangalore, Jun 2: Sea erosion is one phenomenon that has raked in the moolah for some contractors and officials and pushed many in the fishing industry out of business. But it’s an undeniable fact that despite spending crores of rupees since 1979, sea erosion is a widely discussed topic during the monsoons.

The problem surfaced in 1972. In 1979, the Minor Irrigation (MI) department was entrusted with the task of handling emergent works during the monsoon and after that the construction of a sea wall in erosion prone areas. After 27 years, the solution is still elusive. In August 2000, the emergent sea erosion works were entrusted to the Ports Department (PD) as it handled the construction of jetties. Till date they have spent almost Rs 2 crore every year. But there have been no results as these are emergent works carried out during the monsoons to arrest further erosion of the coast.

Gopal Naik, Executive Engineer, Ports and Fisheries Department, said MI department had sent them a pending bill of Rs 5.5 crore, when the works were transferred to their department. Interestingly, the Port department still owes about Rs 18 crore to contractors. This includes the pending arrears from MI department plus works taken up in Karwar area of the coast also.

This amount has been under dispute following allegations of misappropriation. The government had constituted an inquiry committee in 2001, to look into the claims of the contractors, but has failed to deliver any verdict and they knocked at the doors of the court to claim the pending amount with interest. A verdict on this matter is still pending.

Sources in the MI department said that as of now about Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore were spent annually since 1992. The money was only for dumping boulders and putting up sand bag barriers that have been either washed away or lying on the shore as proof of red-tapism and corruption.
 
Also, most of these boulders have been fictional in nature and have fattened the pockets of those all involved. Residents of Kotepura and Ullal, who have been affected claim that the sea had advanced a thousand metres, in the last decade. Such extraordinary claims have been contested by experts who contended that the topographical survey map of the area in the year 1900 and the recent satellite maps did not show such advancement. What they agree is that sea has advanced, say by about a 100 metres at the most.

Lately, sea erosion has been seen as a threat to human habitation along the coast. But the sea is in no way responsible for this destruction, MI department sources said. This is the fallout of four factors viz compensation, contractor, engineer and politicians.

Some built their kuchha structures near the beaches, violating Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms - fully aware that it would be affected during monsoon. A hue and cry is raised during the monsoon, which spurs politicians to announce compensation amounts to safeguard their vote banks. Then works follow. It leaves everybody happy, till the next monsoon arrives.