With around three months left for the onset of monsoon, the Kodagu district administration, after experiencing the gravity of floods and landslides in two consecutive years and spending its time and resources in relief operations, has drawn up a plan to entirely relocate the affected families living illegally close to the river banks to forestall sufferings similar to those undergone in 2018 and 2019.
The authorities hope to complete the construction before the monsoon sets in.
The administration has identified government land in five villages for relocating 237 affected families (they were living in temporary dwellings close to the river banks and most of the dwelling had been destroyed in floods).
Plots of 30 x 40 sq ft. dimension had been planned for providing housing to the victims. These houses will be in addition to those being constructed for people whose legally built houses had been destroyed in the floods.
Villages in list
The Department of Town and Country Planning had prepared the plan for developing sites in the identified villages.
The villages include Abhyathamangala, B. Shettigeri, Arvathoklu, Kedamullur, and Balagodu. About 8.22 acres of government land had been identified at Abhyathamangala besides six acres in B. Shettigeri and half-an-acre in Arvathoklu. The government land identified in Kedamullur and Balagodu was not much since the number of flood victims to be rehabilitated there was less.
The number of affected families identified for rehabilitation in Abhyathamangala is 117- belonging to Nellihudikeri, Valnur, Nanjarayapattana and Basavanahalli. In Arvathoklu, nine flood victims from Thithimathi, Chennangolli, Kanoor and Muttoor had been identified for rehabilitation.
Three families from Thora and one flood victim from Naangala had been identified for rehabilitation at Kedamullur and Balagodu villages respectively.
In Abhyathamangala, 60 sites had been developed. The planning for the remaining sites had been done and steps had been taken for allotting the sites in the presence of the Assistant Commissioner on Wednesday.
Instalments
A sum of ₹5 lakh is also being spent for the construction of each house in a plot measuring 30x 40 sq. ft – similar to the way houses were being constructed for those who lost their dwellings that had all valid records and documents.
The money would be released in four instalments.
Flood victims displeased
The flood victims of Guhya, Siddapura and Karadigodu, who recently called off their indefinite agitation to provide them housing, following the intervention of Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy, are apparently displeased with the place identified by the district administration for their rehabilitation.
The district administration has identified a six-acre plot in B. Shettigeri near Virajpet for developing sites and building houses for 103 flood victims whose houses had been completely destroyed in the calamity last year.
About 125 sites had been proposed on the plot.
However, some have expressed their disapproval claiming that the identified site was “unsuitable” for earning a livelihood since majority of affected families from the three villages were labourers and farm workers who depended on daily earnings for their living.
Yamuna, one of the flood victims and convener of the Niveshana Horata Samithi from Karadigodu, said a memorandum had been submitted to the office of the Deputy Commissioner with a request to consider rehabilitating them near Siddapura, Ammatti and nearby places instead of B. Shettigeri.
