Madikeri: Kodagu District in-charge Minister S.R. Mahesh has directed the district administration to publish the list of houses meant for distribution among flood victims in all Gram Panchayats within two days.

Presiding over a flood relief meeting  here on Friday, Mahesh instructed the officials to prepare a list of victims who lost their houses completely and those who have lost their shelter in part and submit the same to the Legislators from Kodagu. Asking the Revenue officials to include names in case any victim is left out of the list by the end of this month, the Minister said that the officials must act on applications received till the end of the month for further action.

Pointing out that Rs. 94.40 crore has been released to Revenue and Housing Departments for expediting relief and rehabilitation works, he said the Centre has released Rs. 152.37 crore, out of which Rs. 58 crore has been spent for civic amenities and the rest of the money utilised as per the guidelines laid down by NDRF (National Disaster Response Force).

The Minister further said that the State Government has earmarked Rs. 4 crore towards house rent to be paid for victims of natural calamity, who are currently staying in rented accommodations.

Virajpet MLA K.G. Bopaiah took the Revenue officials to task for dropping some of the victims in the list of beneficiaries.

Expressing disappointment over a PDO’s direction to stop Home Stay bookings during monsoon season in Makkandur limits, Bopaiah alleged that a few officials were delaying issuance of NoC for construction of farm houses.

The MLA also directed the officials to come up with a permanent solution for tackling flood issues.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha urged NGOs and philanthropists to fund repair of partially destroyed houses.

Madikeri MLA Appachu Ranjan called for expediting relief and rehabilitation works and for paying appropriate compensation to all the victims who lost their houses, farmlands and other properties.

Kodagu Coffee Growers Federation President Devaiah said that slush mud has filled up paddy fields and called for immediate measures for de-silting of the fields.

Alleging that forest officials are coming in the way of locals utilising the fallen trees, he urged the authorities to look into the same and allow the owners of the land to use trees which have been uprooted in their jurisdiction.

The meeting also heard the grievances of the natural calamity victims. MLC Sunil Subramani, DC Annies Kanmani Joy, ZP CEO K. Lakshmipriya, SP Suman D. Pennekar, ADC P. Shivaraju, ACT Javaregowda and other officials were present.