Central team visits rain-affected areas in Udupi, DK

A high-level three-member team from the Central government visited the flood-affected areas in Panja, Kilinjaru in Mulki hobli on Wednesday. The team comprised Bhartendu Kumar Singh, Deputy Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance; Manik Chandra Pandir, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development and Sadanand Babu, Regional Officer, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

The team inspected crop damage in the affected areas. They were accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil, Additional DC Kumar, Mulki Tahsildar Manikya, Agriculture Department Joint Director Antony and others.

The team will visit affected areas in Moolarapatna, Subrahmanya, Gundya and Shiradi on Thursday. Earlier, the team had met District-in-charge Minister U T Khader, at Circuit House in Mangaluru.

During a meeting with the Central team, DC Sasikanth Senthil said the district has already submitted a proposal seeking Rs 213 crore for the loss of properties due to rain in DK.

He said that rain victims were provided shelter at 14 relief centres. Compensation has already been paid to 1,770 damaged houses. A total of 11 persons have lost their lives in rain related incident in the district.

He said that funds are required for rebuilding the basic infrastructure facilities that were damaged in the rain. Horticultural crops on 39,000 hectares have been lost in the rain. The arecanut growers are in distress in the district. Pepper, arecanut and other crops too have been damaged.

The DC said that the Mescom has incurred a loss of Rs 6 crore in the rain-related incidents.

In Udupi

The team visited the rain-affected areas in Udupi district and inspected the damaged crops, roads and other basic infrastructure facilities.

The Central team assessed damage to Jayanthinagara Government School at Kukkandoor in Karkala taluk. Later, they took stock of the Karkala-Udupi Road, which had suffered extensive damage in the rains. The team also visited arecanut plantations affected with fruit rot disease at Miyar. The y inspected the damaged arecanut trees in the plantations and interacted with the growers. They also collected information on the benefits reaped from the crop insurance by the farmers.

The team visited Hosmaru and inspected the Edu bridge and connecting road and collected information on estimated loss from the PWD officials. The team also inspected the bridge and connecting road that was washed away in the rain at Kampettu in Nooralbettu.

They also inspected a footbridge that has been washed away at Landelu, Nooralbettu and inspected the damaged bridge and road at Kalathooru Gurme. Here the team inspected the ongoing repair works of the damaged bridge and connecting stretch at Kampettu village. The footbridge at Landelu has washed away and the connectivity is lost. The team had to walk 500 metres to assess the damage.

Later during a meeting, Udupi Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis said that the loss caused by the rain is estimated at around Rs 150 crore in Udupi district. She said that crops have been damaged. The rain has also affected fishing activities as several boats were also damaged, and the connectivity is affected as many roads have been damaged.

The DC said that around 1058 houses have been damaged in the district with an estimated loss of Rs 10.6 crore. The team directed the DC to collect information on the mode of compensation paid to the boat owners in Kerala. The measure will help them decide over the compensation packages for the fishermen.

Kundapura AC Boobalan, Agriculture Department Joint Director Kempe Gowda, Horticulture Department Deputy Director Bhuvaneshwari, and others were present.