Council committee inspects houses of flood victims

The members of the Committee on Papers Laid on the Table of Legislative Council, under the leadership of Sa Ra Mahesh, inspected the houses distributed to the flood victims of 2018 floods in Kodagu.

An inspection was conducted by the committee members at the rehabilitation site in Karnangeri village on Tuesday.

The committee members including Sunil Biliya Naik, T Raghumurthy, M Srinivas, C M Lingappa, Jayamma and U T Khader inspected the houses.

Speaking on the occasion, Mangaluru MLA U T Khader said that the coalition government responded to the woes of the flood victims last year.

Recalling that he was the housing minister and Sa Ra Mahesh was the district in-charge minister then, he said that former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy gave a quick response.

A rent allowance of Rs 10,000 was paid to the victims every month. This was a historic decision in the nation at the time, he said.

Stating that Rs 30 crore was released by the then coalition government towards basic infrastructure facilities, Khader stated that BJP members, who were in opposition then, had alleged that the houses were not provided for flood victims. But now, they are not saying anything on the non-accessibility to flood relief by the victims affected by floods this year.

The committee will check on whether there are any drawbacks in the facilities provided to the flood victims in the houses and will submit a report to the government.

He added that the Congress-JD(S) coalition government had spent Rs 9.85 lakh on each house to be provided to the houseless flood victim, along with providing a rent allowance of Rs 10,000 per month.

An amount of Rs 1 lakh was provided as a temporary relief and Rs 50,000 was provided as compensation towards the loss of household materials, setting a standard in the nation in the dispensing of compensation, he said.

U T Khader meanwhile alleged that the BJP government has been wasting time on hate politics, instead of wiping the tears of the flood victims.

The cheques distributed towards the repair of the flood-affected houses have bounced, he added.

Committee chairman Sa Ra Mahesh said it was decided to conduct an inspection of the houses during the committee meeting held recently.

He meanwhile urged the state government to respond to the woes of people who have been affected by the floods this year.

To a query, he said that there is a triangle fight in 15 Assembly constituencies awaiting by-elections.

“There is no question of JD(S) forming alliance with any other party,” he added.

Conducting a meeting at the new ZP complex, Sa Ra Mahesh directed the officials to carry out an audit of the government grants utilised for flood victims. The audit should be carried out by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) from time to time.

Zilla Panchayat CEO K Lakshmi Priya and Additional Deputy Commissioner Dr Sneha were present.