Kodagu rehab: State seeks Central aid of Rs 2K cr

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Thursday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and urged him to sanction immediate relief of at least Rs 2,000 crore to Karnataka to start the rehabilitation process in the flood-affected Kodagu district and adjoining areas.

Kumaraswamy was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, Revenue Ministers R V Deshpande and Cooperation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur.

In a memorandum submitted to Singh, the chief minister pegged the losses due to high-intensity rainfall in Kodagu, several parts of Malnad and coastal districts at Rs 3435.80 crore.

“More than 5,500 houses are destroyed and around 2,000 km of roads have been damaged as per the initial estimates,” he said adding that the high-intensity rainfall has also caused severe damage to the crops, infrastructure, houses, livestock and the local population. Kumaraswamy made it clear that this was only an interim assessment of the losses since several of the affected areas were still inaccessible.

He also requested the Union Home Minister to send an inter-ministerial central team for an early assessment of the damages.

Kumaraswamy said the state government had already released Rs 49 crore from the state disaster relief fund and an additional amount of Rs 200 crore from untied funds to the rain-affected districts to start rehabilitation and relief activities in an unhampered manner.

Parameshwara submitted a separate memorandum to Singh drawing his attention to the proposals of the state government pending with the Centre.

The proposals pending with the Central government include approval to the Coastal Security Scheme Phase-II, establishment of two India Reserve Battalions at Tumakuru and Davangere, supply of boats under Coastal Security Scheme Phase-II, establishment of state marine police training centre, increase in the GRP strength and establishment of GRP for Konkan Railways and release of funds under police modernisation.