Parasram Mitagar lives with three of his family members and three goats in a tiny makeshift hut that he has put up near the gram panchayat office in Bhooranki near Khanapur in Belagavi district.
His house was destroyed in the floods of 2019 and he is yet to get relief, despite officials claiming the contrary. He parks his bullock cart near the hut. “Officials have threatened me with a police case if we do not clear the premises. But I keep telling them that I have nowhere to go,” he said.
Just before his house collapsed, the gram panchayat officers shifted him from Maskyanatti village to a nearby village. Another farmer gave him shelter for a few months. “But how long can we keep troubling our host?” he asked. Despite several requests, the officers did not come to his house for inspection.
Six months later, the tahsildar’s office staff told him that compensation for the damage to one room had been released to him. “But I had not got any amount. I decided to stay near the gram panchayat till I was paid proper relief,” he said.
Jaitun Chandure and her eight family members are living in her house that has partially collapsed in Kallol village near Chikkodi. “Neither have the officers come to my house to inspect the damage nor have I got compensation. I have appealed to every leader I know — the gram panchayat, taluk and zilla panchayat members, and MLAs. But no one has helped us out,” she said. At Hosur village in Ramdurg taluk, six families are living in the nearby Shiva temple.
These are not isolated cases. Several flood victims are still living in similar bad conditions.
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa promised to release ₹5 lakh per family that had suffered house damage. But the victims have not got the promised amount, complains Jayashree Gurannanavar, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader.
“Officers tasked with site inspection and house survey have committed blunders. They came under the influence of politicians and included undeserving persons in the list of beneficiaries. They have also wrongly categorised families who suffered greater damage as those who suffered minimal damage,” she alleged.
Farmers’ leader Choonappa Pujari complained that officials had rejected the claims of over 9,000 people who had suffered house damage. “The government got applications and survey reports of around 54,000 families seeking relief. But the officers approved relief only for around 44,000 families,” he said. He is among the signatories who have sent a memorandum to the government extending the relief to all affected families. This issue was raised in the Chief Minister’s meeting in Belagavi on Tuesday.
When Mahadevappa Yadavad, MLA, demanded immediate release of compensation for all those who had lost houses, the Chief Minister said the State government had released ₹448 crore to 44,156 families. Mahantesh Kavatagimath, MLC, requested the Chief Minister to add 9,000 more houses to the list of beneficiaries.
‘Amount released’
Deputy Commissioner M.G. Hiremath said compensation had been released to “all deserving families as per norms.” Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation had released an average of ₹95,000 per family that was willing to rebuild their houses. “Only those applicants who did not have proper documents or those who had built houses on encroached lands or those who had disputes about property have not been considered. We have forwarded requests from such persons to the government and asked for reconsideration,” he said.
