District in-charge Secretary and Secretary to the Chief Minister M. Lakshminarayana has asked the officials concerned to be prepared to tackle the situation if there are floods.
He was speaking at the review meeting held here on Tuesday during which time he reviewed the progress under various development works taken up in the district.
He said that the Imambada area in Shimoga city and Mandagadde in Tirthahalli taluk were some of the flood-prone areas where flood havoc was an annual feature. He said it was necessary to see that the precautionary measures were taken on time to avoid the hardship that floods cause to the people there.
He said officials concerned should take steps to convert old government buildings, which are unused, into community halls or anganwadi centres. In case there are floods, then the district would require at least 826 anganwadi centres to take care of the needs of the children during the natural disaster, he added.
He expressed surprise at the fact that the grant of Rs. 50 lakh released for anganwadi centres remained unspent and observed that buildings of at least 13 anganwadi centres could have been constructed using the funds. He instructed officials to discharge their duties with diligence.
Superintending Engineer of the Public Works Department Kantaraj said while the third phase of the Government College for Veterinary Sciences was under progress, the construction of the Ayurvedic Hospital was almost complete and it would be handed over to the department concerned soon for public use.
Joint Director of Agriculture Shivamurthappa said the district had the stock of 35,100 quintals of sowing seeds and added that there was a stock of 13,545 tonnes of chemical fertilizers. It was proposed to bring 1,85,254 hectares of land under the kharif crops, he added.
He pointed out that 102 villages which had been selected under the Swarna Gramodaya Yojane had been sanctioned the grant of Rs. 58.2 crore. He said the amount should be utilised properly for the development of the villages.
Mr. Lakshminarayana expressed his dissatisfaction over the fact that Rs.7 crore out of Rs. 11 crore sanctioned for the development of the colonies of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes remained unutilised.
