While the State government has estimated the damage to crop and public/private infrastructure by heavy rains and floods at ₹3,845.11 crore and has sought immediate relief from the Centre, the latter has conveyed to the State that relief cannot be sanctioned for private infrastructure.
Revealing this after a review meeting on Wednesday, Revenue Minister R. Ashok told presspersons that the Centre has sought clarification from the State regarding flood-relief assistance.
Reworking loss
“We had taken into consideration damages to private hospitals, schools, and other private buildings while estimating total relief. Now, the Centre has told us that relief cannot be granted to private infrastructure, and hence we are now reworking the estimated loss. We will send the revised report to the Centre in the next two days,” he said.
Giving the break up of the total properties damaged in the floods, the Minister said 2,47,628 houses, 8.88 lakh hectares of agriculture and horticulture land, 21,818 km of roads, 2,193 bridges, 1,550 minor irrigation and zilla panchayat tanks and 10,988 government buildings including anganwadis, schools and primary health centres have been damaged.
“Except for 1,929 families in Belagavi, we have distributed immediate relief of ₹10,000 per family to 2,00,258 families till date. This amount is for the families to buy basic essentials, including utensils and clothes. The neighbours of these 1,929 families have complained that false claims have been submitted for compensation. Officials are inquiring into this and genuine claimants will be given the money,” he said.
Reconstruction plan
“In today’s meeting, we have also discussed the feasibility of reconstructing collapsed houses in the same spot,” he said. Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had announced that ₹1 lakh would be given initially to such families.
