'Ban iron ore trucks on NHs'

Officials should study all legal aspects properly and implement the ban: Acharya

Addressing officials and people’s representatives at a meeting convened to discuss issues related to rain damages in the district at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office here on Sunday, Acharya said that the National Highways in the district were destroyed completely due to the excessive plying of iron ore trucks. “Officials should study all legal aspects properly and implement the ban,” he suggested adding that the authorities including Police, RTA and the district administration should take steps jointly to implement the ban successfully.

In-charge Deputy Commissioner Prabhakar Sharma informed in the meeting that a total of 42.6 kilometers stretch of National Highway has been damaged completely. The damage has been estimated at Rs 2.36 crore, he added.

13 deaths, Rs 39.18 cr damage

Sharma informed that a total of 13 people died and 8 are injured due to rain related mishaps in the district. While 15 houses were destroyed completely, 385 were damaged partially, he added.

The total loss due to rains in the district has been estimated at Rs 39.18 crore as on Sunday, Sharma said. The district administration has submitted a demand for the release of Rs 33.34 crore to compensate the rain damages, he said adding that the district administration has Rs 5.84 crore under its Calamity Relief Fund (CRF).

Agricultural Department Assistant Director Padmaiah Naik said that while a total of 99.55 hectares of agricultural land out of 23,814 hectares were flooded, the loss has been estimated at Rs 10.45 lakh. However the actual figures can be assessed only when the rainfall decreases, he added.  According to Mescom statistics, a total of 179 transformers and 1,160 poles were damaged due to rains. The total loss is estimated at Rs 1.43 crore.  Zilla Panchayat has estimated a loss of Rs 14.94 crore due to rain damages, while 153 cases of property loss worth Rs 5.47 rore was estimated by the Mangalore City Corporation.

Sea erosion

U T Khader brought to the notice of Minister that the officials are not releasing funds for carrying out temporary measures to check sea erosion from the CRF citing technical snags.

He urged the government to clear all impediments for the release of money from the CRF.

District-in-Charge Minister J Krishna Palemar, Coastal Development Authority Chairman B Nagaraja Shetty, Third Finance Commission Chairman A G Kodgi, Regional Commissioner M V Jayanthi, District-in-Charge Secretary Bharathlal Meena, MLAs Abhaychandra Jain, N Yogish Bhat, Ramanath Rai and IGP Gopal Hosur were present.