Karnataka prepares rain damage estimates, to seek relief from Centre

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said that the state government has prepared a report on rain damage estimates meticulously for submission to the Centre seeking a fair amount of relief.

The CM held a meeting with the central team led by Ashish Kumar, a Joint Secretary at the Union Home Ministry that arrived in Bengaluru on Wednesday to study the flood situation in Karnataka, and also the extensive damage caused due to floods in July, August and over the past few days this month.

The central teams later left for Chitradurga, Hassan, Chikmagalur, Haveri, Dharwad, Gadag, Bidar and Kalaburgi districts but the CM suggested them also to visit Kodagu, Dakshina Kannad and Uttara Kannada districts that witnessed the massive landslide and sea erosion.The team was requested to take a stock of flood situation in Bengaluru City, Mandya and Ramanagar districts.


Bommai informed the team that this time, a large number of fishing boats, shops and other business establishments had been damaged. In Ramanagar, silk reeling units and twisting units too have suffered damage.

He said Karnataka has a coastal area of 330 km and projects worth Rs 350 crore have been taken up to prevent the sea erosion in several sensitive places. But, the erosion has happened in the new spots. Central government assistance is required for the protection of the complete coastal region. The North-
Karnataka region too faced unprecedented floods in districts like Kalaburgi, Gadag, Bidar and Koppal. In fact, the State has been receiving intermittent rains since November last year and there is a need to undertake a study of the rain pattern in the state. Almost all the tanks are full and overflowing. Many tanks have breached and caused floods. This situation was quite contrast to the floods caused by overflowing rivers.

Bommai said since November, Rs 500 crore has been released twice and Rs 600 crore was released two days ago towards restoring infrastructure damages. The state was giving additional input subsidy for the crop loss, and Rs 2452 crore has been disbursed among 18.58 lakh farmers. Out of this, Rs 1160 crore has been borne from the state exchequer. Relief was paid even on the extent of house damage. All the relief amounts are directly released to bank accounts of the affected swiftly and transparently.