Shettar asks to start road constructions without delay

District In-charge and Large & Medium Scale Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar has asked the officials concerned to start the work of restoring damaged roads immediately after the rains recede, without wasting time in calling tenders.

"In such an emergency situation caused by heavy rains, the provision to get exemption under Section 4(g) of the KTPP Act should be utilised, so that there should be no delay in restoring damaged roads, and other emergency flood relief works," he said.

Reviewing the progress of flood relief works in the district, at a meeting here on Friday, he contacted Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar over the phone, and asked him to issue a circular, giving 4(g) exemption for flood relief works.

Flood relief funds released by the Union Government need not be spent as per the NDRF norms, and they can be used as per actual loss itself. Dharwad district has received Rs 40 crore as per NDRF norms. Around Rs 14 crore is required to repair damaged school buildings, anganawadi centres and primary health centres. Remaining amount should be used to restore damaged roads, Shettar said.

Hubballi-Dharwad Mahanagara Palike (HDMP) would develop damaged roads in the twin cities, spending Rs 60 crore. Public Works Department (PWD) would separately spend Rs 31.5 crore to repair damaged roads, he noted.

When officials stated that resurfacing of damaged roads would begin next month, Shettar asked them to develop good quality roads on a war footing, and to start patchworks immediately after the rains recede.

Good roads by Feb

Roads in the twin cities would be developed spending around Rs 140 crore, under various schemes including Nagarotthana and SFC. Most of the roads would get facelift by February next year. Reconstruction of five bridges washed away in Hubballi would begin within two months, for which Rs 15 crore would be spent, he added.

Shettar also asked the officials to pay the compensation for flood-hit houses on a war footing, and to allow relocation of families on the banks of streams, if government land is available.

He also gave instructions to speed up the process to get compensation for farmers who incurred crop loss. A list of houses damaged due to continuous rains after the flood situation should also be prepared, to arrange compensation for them, he added.

Damage in dist

The meeting was informed that five persons and 212 cattle lost life due to the flood situation in the district. A total of 17,204 houses were damaged, and Rs 34.54 crore compensation is disbursed so far. 33,852 food kits were also distributed. Rs five crore is available in the deputy commissioner's account, while eight tahsildars have Rs 9.31 crore in total, officials informed.

MLAs Shankar Patil Munenakoppa, Kusumavati Shivalli, Amruth Desai, C M Nimbannavar, Deputy Commissioner Deepa Cholan, ZP CEO B C Sateesh, HDMP Commissioner Suresh Itnal, and officials of various departments were present.