A day after Leader of the Opposition B.S. Yeddyurappa accused the government of ignoring drought relief, Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar listed various works taken up by the government to drive home the point that drought was being tackled.
The Chief Secretary noted that the Chief Minister, Ministers and legislators were barred from attending the review meetings due to the poll model code of conduct.
At a press conference in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Mr. Vijay Bhaskar said a three-tier system was in place to monitor the situation regularly. At the State level, he conducted four video conferences with Deputy Commissioners of districts, chief executive officers of zilla panchayats and other senior officials since the onset of summer. This was in addition to a meeting of ZP CEOs in Bengaluru on April 27 and weekly reviews being conducted by the development commissioner, he said.
Deputy Commissioners and tahsildars were holding weekly review meetings at the district and taluk level, he said. The ZP CEO-led task forces were formed to review the fiscal and physical progress of works, he noted.
Water tankers
With drought being severe compared to last year, the State government has made arrangements to supply drinking water through tankers to 1,205 villages.
Mr. Vijay Bhaskar said 1,893 watertankers were making 5,498 trips daily to cater to drinking water needs of the villages spread over 26 districts. He said 173 more villages had joined the list of those hit by water shortage in the last 15 days.
To handle complaints related to drinking water shortage, the government had set up a State-level (number 1070) and district-level control rooms (STD code plus 1077) with toll-free numbers.
To keep away bureaucratic delays, the government would exempt proposals for drilling borewells from the tendering process, he said. Deputy Commissioners had ₹726 crore funds, he said.
The chief secretary said 11 cow shelters had been set up in three districts to house 11,220 cattle. In addition to this 128 fodder banks too had been set up. He said the state’s stock of 63.60 lakh metric tonnes of fodder was estimated to be sufficient enough to take care of the requirements for the next 14 weeks.
Focus on precautionary measures
The State government is focussing on precautionary measures to prevent major damage in Kodagu, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi disticts that witnessed floods due to torrential rains in August 2018.
A team of senior officials has been constituted to review the precautionary measures being taken by the local administration in these districts. The committee will tour the districts in the coming week, Mr. Vijay Bhaskar said.
Directions have also been issued to ensure deployment of two teams of NDRF as precautionary measure in Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts as monsoon begins, he said.
