The committee for coordination and flood management mechanism created by Karnataka and Maharashtra has led to quick exchange of accurate information about rainfall, water release and impounding of water.
Officials say that there is real-time information exchange between engineers at the district, regional and State-level. State-level officers are also alerting their counterparts to water release, one day before opening the gates of the various dams.
This 24-hour window would help Revenue and Police departments take up rescue and relief operations, they add.
However, questions remain to be answered about the preparations being made at the district, sub-division and taluk-levels to manage floods, if the region were to face them.
In the first week of June when Maharashtra released water into the Krishna, Minister for Major and Medium Irrigation and district in-charge Ramesh Jarkiholi announced that he would convene a meeting of Irrigation, Revenue, Police and other departments concerned from across the Krishna basin districts. He is yet to do so.
The Minister had also said that the officials would use last year’s data to set up relief camps and rescue points. Last year, over nine lakh persons were evacuated in Belagavi and Bagalkot districts. Nearly 80,000 persons were sheltered for nearly 50 days in over 500 relief centres put up in flood-affected villages or areas nearby in the two districts.
The district administration officers seem to have taken rescue operations preparedness seriously. Officials inform that in Mumbai Karnataka districts, NDRF teams have been paired with SDRF teams and dispatched to vulnerable villages. In Kalyan Karnataka districts, the NDRF and SDRF teams are camping in district headquarters, ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice.
But the same enthusiasm is not seen in planning for relief.
The district administration in Belagavi is yet to set up relief camps in vulnerable villages or towns nearby. Only one relief centre, with a capacity to hold around 30 families, has been set up in Nippani.
Another problem is that of pending compensation amount for the losses suffered last year. Farmer leaders say that the State government has not released the promised amount of ₹ 5 lakh to any of the families that suffered house collapse.
First of all, there has been grave injustice in the categorisation of houses as mild, medium and completely destroyed. Most deserving families were left out. Even families whose houses were completely collapsed have not received the full amount. They have only received around ₹ 10,000 per family, said Jayashree Gurannanavar, farmers leader. She also feels that Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s promise to increase crop loss relief has not been kept.
In Belagavi district, “we faced very serious floods in 2019. Across the State, 31 lives were lost. The State declared 80 taluks in 17 districts as flood-hit. The Chief Minister called it the biggest calamity in five decades and estimated the loss at ₹ 40,000 crore. But farmers and other families who lost houses and crops were not properly compensated. We are writing a letter to the Prime Minister about this,” she added.
Member of Legislative Assembly Mahesh Kumthalli told journalists in Athani on Sunday that the government had released compensation to over 60 % of the affected families. All those who lost houses will soon get the complete compensation in a few days, he added.
Deputy Commissioner M.G. Hiremath said that officers in the taluk-level had been instructed to identify villages that could house relief centres. “We are following last year’s pattern to set up these centres. It is true that most of our staff is on COVID-19 duty. But we have taken all steps to face the floods. There is no laxity on our part,” he said.
