A six-member Central team visited Kalaburagi on Thursday to assess the damage caused by heavy rain and floods during September and interacted with affected farmers.
The team, headed by Beena Prasad, joint secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, visited Hulsgod, Kansur, Tengli and Muttaga villages in Chittapur taluk and Malkhed in Sedam taluk in the district.
Tahira Bi, 65-year-old women in Hulsgod village who had lost red gram on her 9.7 acres of land due to floods in Bennethora on September 22, complained that she had not been paid any compensation so far.
The team of officials talked to Mallamma and Basamma, labourers from Hebbal village whose houses were partially damaged in floods.
The team spent around five to 10 minutes in each village examining the damaged houses, streets and bridges.
However, the officials faced a practical problem in assessing the damages caused by floods nearly three months ago.
The team included S.M. Kolhatkar, director, Oilseeds, Hyderabad; Deenanath, adviser at Ministry of Finance; Pankajkumar Sharma, director, Union Water Commission, , Neeta Tehiliani, Under Secretary, Rural Development and Reena Guha ,Deputy Secretary at Union Ministry of Home Affairs .
Ms. Beena Prasad, speaking to presspersons, expressed her satisfactory with the documented records provided by the district administration and the State government about the extent of damage.
She said that procedural aspects were the reason for the delay for visiting the flood-affected areas. The team would submit a report to the Union government soon, she added.
Deputy Commissioner Ujjwalkumar Ghosh said that a joint survey, by the district administration and the agriculture and revenue departments, has put the loss of agriculture and horticulture crop at Rs. 61.76 crore.
Standing crop was damage on 89,616 hectares and horticultural crop on 632 hectares.
Around 4,649 kuccha and pukka houses were said to be partially damaged and the loss was estimated at Rs. 166 crore.
The infrastructure damage was estimated to be Rs.121 crore. The loss computed by the district administration is limited to the payment of compensation according to NDRF norms; the actual loss suffered by the farmers was more than Rs. 600 crore, he added.
Mr. Ghosh said that the State government had released Rs. 25 crore as interim relief for immediate relief, to take up emergency repair works and to compensate families of the two persons who were washed away in floods.
