Flood losses over Rs 30k crore, BSY tells Central team

Karnataka has incurred over Rs 30,000 crore estimated losses due to floods, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa told an inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) visiting the state to assess the situation on Saturday.

The seven-member IMCT, headed by Ministry of Home Affairs joint secretary (administration) Prakash, is slated to visit the flood-hit Belagavi, Bagalkot, Gadag, Dharwad and Kogadu from August 25-27.

So far, the government has released Rs 309 crore towards rescue and relief works, Yediyurappa said in a statement.

The chief minister requested the IMCT to carry out a “realistic assessment” of the flood situation and pointed out that “thousands of families have lost everything and they have to build their life from scratch.” He urged the team to recommend “suitable and reasonable” compensation to help the state come back to normalcy.

The floods have wreaked havoc in 103 taluks across 22 districts, killing 87 persons, damaging 2.3 lakh homes and displacing nearly 7 lakh people. Over 7.82 lakh hectares of crop losses have been estimated, with 35,000 km of roads, 2,828 bridges, 57,000 electric poles, 14,076 transformers and 3,724 power supply lines damaged.

'National calamity'

A Congress team, headed by former minister M B Patil, that reviewed the flood situation in Mumbai-Karnataka urged the Centre to declare it “a national calamity.”

Patil, who addressed a news conference, also urged Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to enhance compensation to those who have lost homes from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

“The entire old Gokak in Belagavi is gone. Only the extension of Gokak remains. All those people from old Gokak have to be resettled, which will be a huge task. If government land is available, then nothing like it. Otherwise, the government should purchase land directly from farmers with their consent,” Patil said.