Pay ex gratia to rain victims at the earliest: minister

District in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai has directed the officials concerned to carry out  rain relief works on priority disburse the compensation to the affected families at the earliest.

Chairing a review meet at the deputy commissioner’s office here on Sunday, Rai took officials to task for inordinate delay in paying compensation to those affected by rains. He said the money should be paid to the victims within a week. The minister directed the Mescom officials to pay the compensation immediately to the family members of the persons who are electrocuted during heavy rains.

A Mescom official said that out of the 2,500 electricity poles that have collapsed so far, the restoration of only 150 poles was pending. The minister directed the Mescom official to deploy contractors, if necessary, to restore the electricity lines damaged due to heavy winds and rains.

Dissatisfied with the slow pace of the levelling work of Charmadi Road, the minister instructed the National Highways official to complete the work within a week. The minister said that the work should have been completed by now, had it been started in January itself, but the department was negligent and started the work in April. As the route is used as an alternative to Shiradi Road, which is now being developed, there are frequent traffic jams hence, the work should be completed at the earliest, he said. the NH official replied that work for 10.5 km on the Shiradi road was over and 1.5 km is pending.

Official concerned informed the meet that there has been a decrease in rainfall compared to the last season during the same period. The expected rainfall from January 1, 2015, till June 27, 2015 was 1176. 2 mm while there has been an average rainfall of 931.4 mm in the district. District Health Officer Dr Ramakrishna Rao said that 1,240 positive dengue cases have been detected in the district and there have been five deaths so far. Last year during the same period, there were 63 cases.

He further said that 10 mobile teams have been deployed in each taluk for the purpose. Fogging is being done and the people are distributed with handouts to create awareness.  Also, tests are conducted in PHCs. In the wake of sea erosion in Ullal and Someshwar limits, the minister directed the officials to carry out temporary measures such as laying of sand bags to check the erosion.

Mangaluru City Corporation Joint Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak said that 925 malaria and 121 dengue cases have been detected in the MCC limits. He added that the number includes unconfirmed cases.

The disaster management cell staff said that the control room in the DC office was alert round the clock and in case of rain-related emergencies, people may call 1077. Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim directed the tahsildars of all the taluks to take measures to fence all the dangerous stone quarries.