'Govt to constitute an authority to rebuild Kodagu'

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday announced that an authority to rebuild Kodagu will be constituted, following the massive devastation after heavy rains in August.

Speaking during an interaction with the rain victims at Gandhi Maidan in Madikeri, he said, "The chief minister will head the authority. The district in-charge minister and elected representatives from Kodagu will be its members. The government will bear the educational expenses of the children of flood victims for a year. I will direct banks to sanction loans without any conditions for the students from Kodagu who wish to pursue higher education."

"We are expecting a sum of Rs 200 crore under Chief Minister's Relief Fund. The fund will be utilised only for rebuilding the Kodagu district. I will not allow the misuse of the fund. The fund will not be utilised for development works in other districts," he clarified.

He said that a compensation of Rs 50,000 will be given to those who have lost furniture and electronic goods in the floods.

A sum of Rs 6 crore will be released to the account of deputy commissioner within two days.

"In addition, the government will spend Rs 8.50 lakh each for building houses for the victims. In fact, there is no provision for providing such a huge amount of compensation to the victims of natural calamity. We did not look into the guidelines while reaching out to the flood victims. Better compensation will be announced for those who have lost their coffee plantations in landslides," said the chief minister.

The chief minister also said that the state government has decided to waive off loans up to Rs 2 lakh availed from nationalised banks by the farmers, which will come into effect from November 1.

The nationalised bank officials are not responding to the state government's decision. They have failed to furnish the details sought, he said and accused the BJP leaders of conspiring in connection with the loan waiver scheme of the state government.

After listening to the woes of the victims, the chief minister had lunch with them.