Many people, who were rendered homeless during the heavy rains last year, continue to stay put in temporary arrangements, even as they are going through another rainy season. A majority of them are in rented houses or outhouses of their relatives, as the construction of houses has been delayed.
Several parts of Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga districts witnessed huge damage and destruction last August. Hundreds of people were stuck in remote places for days and many houses were inundated in the heart of Shivamogga town.
Three categories
The State government assessed the damage and listed the houses in three categories considering the scale of damage. Those which were fully damaged were slated as category A and under this, the beneficiary would get ₹5 lakh. Those whose houses were partially damaged (25% to 75%) could choose either reconstruction or to repair the existing house. Under this category (B), those who chose reconstruction would get ₹5 lakh and compensation up to ₹3 lakh would be given for those who chose repairs. Category C included those houses which sustained damages of less than 25%. The government asked the affected people to shift to rented houses, promising them a rent of ₹5,000 per month for 10 months. Even after 10 months were up, many continued to stay in these houses.
Manjulamma, a resident of Rajiv Gandhi Extension in Shivamogga, whose house was damaged completely, told The Hindu that her family got only ₹1 lakh to rebuild the house. “We could complete only the foundation of the building. The remaining ₹4 lakh is yet to reach us. Whenever we approached the officers, they asked us to wait for some more time. Now they are citing COVID-19 as the reason for the delay,” she said.
Slow progress
Of the 566 fully damaged houses in Shivamogga district, so far only 88 have been reconstructed. Among the 584 partially damaged, taken up for reconstruction, work on only 120 has been completed. In the case of houses meant to be repaired, of the total 291, work on only 12 has been finished.
In Chikkamagaluru district, of the fully damaged 457 houses, work on 258 is in different stages and on 199 is still pending.
Kumara, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Chikkamagaluru, told The Hindu that a majority of the houses, work on which has not yet begun, belonged to those who had refused to move out of the unsafe places. “We cannot allow them to construct houses where they are now, as the place is unsafe. But they are not ready to move out to the place we have allotted to them. Among them, 133 have given in writing that they would remain there as the alternate place allotted to them was far from their agricultural land,” he said.
However, they all have got the first installment of ₹1 lakh, which they said they have utilised for the repair of their houses. Even those people, who had started the construction utilising the funds, had to stop work owing to incessant heavy rains.
