The Kodagu district administration on Wednesday reviewed the progress of rehabilitation of people affected by floods that ravaged the region during 2018 and 2019 monsoon.
Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy, who chaired the review meeting, said houses were being constructed for those who lost their residential dwellings in 2018 and money would be credited to the bank account of those who lost their houses in 2019 floods. This was to enable them to take up repairs and reconstruction of their houses, she added.
She said nearly 1 lakh people of the district were affected by the floods and landslips that affected Kodagu for two consecutive years and resulted in the death of 40 people. In all, 6,397 houses, 265 anganwadis, 239 schools, and 20 primary health centres were damaged and the net loss was estimated at ₹1,736 crore, she said.
The Deputy Commissioner, who apprised the officials and the affected people attending the meeting, said a decision had been taken to teach and train students on disaster management techniques from the young age.
With respect to agriculture and crop damage, Ms. Joy said nearly 14,000 farmers in the district had been paid compensation totalling ₹57 crore so far.
Coffee growers’ plea
District Coffee Growers Federation president M.B. Devaiah urged the authorities to permit construction of houses on C and D land in case of those who lived along the banks of rivers and lost their houses in the recent floods. Some of the stakeholders called for additional amenities and facilities for the flood-affected people and called for scientific extraction of sand from rivers. The attention of the authorities was also drawn to lacunae in the work in progress and the imperatives of resolving them such as desilting and road construction.
The participants were informed that Infosys Foundation had taken up the responsibility of constructing a few houses and the VTU had chipped in with ₹59 lakh towards the same. A section of coffee planters sought ₹12 lakh per acre lost in landslips as compensation.
Local geologists who attended the meeting called upon the authorities to prepare a master plan based on the geological conditions of Kodagu. Additional DC Sneha, Superintendent of Police D.P. Suman and others were present.
