Yeddy’s padayatra mops up Rs 500 cr for flood relief
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Oct 7: Faced with the daunting and mammoth task of providing relief to the crores of people of northern Karnataka reeling under unprecedented flood havoc during the past one week, chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s initiative to embark upon padayatras to mobilise funds for the relief and rehabilitation works has helped in mobilising Rs 500 crore so far.
While the chief minister’s padayatra, comprising some of his senior cabinet colleagues, on some of the prominent roads and localities in the city on Wednesday helped in raising Rs 300 crore on a single day, the government had mobilised another Rs 200 crore through the padayatra route in the unaffected regions of northern Karnataka.
"We will continue these efforts to mobilise funds in all districts,’’ he said pointing out that the spontaneous public response should ``send a strong message’’ to the Centre to generously respond to the state’s appeal for help to provide relief and rehabilitation to the victims of the devastation that claimed a toll of 206 lives and estimated damages of over Rs 16,500 crore.
Yeddyurappa said the President Pratibha Patil spoke to him on phone to inquire about the devastation caused by the rains and floods and expressed her deep concern for the victims.
Talking to reporters after the day-long exercise in Bangalore, he said Ministers, MPs and MLAs will be involved in the exercise throughout the state for the next two days.
Profusely thanking the people of Bangalore and other parts of the state for their ``overwhelming response’’ to the fund-raising drive.
The chief minister announced that the government planned to chalk out a comprehensive housing scheme to provide permanent shelters to the families affected by the worst-ever rain havoc in the history of northern Karnataka.
He was accompanied by home minister Dr V S Acharya, information and excise minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, law and urban development minister Suresh Kumar, Kannada Development Authority chairman Mukhyamantri Chandru, BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar and other legislators.
According to officials, the Prime Minister is expected to conduct an aerial survey of the affected regions on Friday. The preliminary estimate of the loss by rain and flash floods in 15 districts of Karnataka has been pegged at around Rs 17,000 crore. Nearly three lakh houses have been partly or fully damaged. Standing crop in 25 lakh hectares has been extensively damaged.
The standing bridges, drinking water installations and power supply infrastructure in 15 districts have been damaged to a great extent. As many as 6.6 lakh people have been accommodated in 1,619 relief camps, the chief minister said pointing out that at least 5,197 persons were been rescued by boats and helicopters.
In the wake of the rain damaging over three lakh houses in the state, he said the government would implement the housing scheme within a year in a time-bound manner through the funds being mobilised through the padayatras.
An amount of Rs 1 lakh will be spent for each house besides providing basic amenities like roads, drinking water and electricity, he said indicating that the government required at least Rs 3,000 crore for the taking up the housing scheme alone
Reiterating his appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to release Rs 10,000 crore from the Centre, Yeddyurappa demanded that the situation caused by the unprecedented rains in the state should be declared as a ``national disaster’’ with generous central assistance.
He appealed to NGOs, religious mutts, industrialists and the general public to contribute generously to the Calamity Relief Fund set up by the State Government to take up relief and rehabilitation of the millions of people in north Karnataka, whose lives have been devastated in the unprecedented rains and floods.
Meanwhile, the chief minister has sent separate appeals to his counterparts in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Sikkim and Orissa to extend liberal assistance to the flood victims.
The Central public sector undertaking HAL as well as state-owned Hutti Gold Mines Ltd have generously contributed to the chief minister’s relief fund. While the state government employees association has announced its decision to contribute a day’s wages towards the relief fund, the IAS officers have decided to contribute 2 days emoluments per month over the next three months.