Mysore/Mysuru: A meeting called by Mysuru District Minister S.T. Somashekar at Zilla Panchayat Hall yesterday to assess rain damage in the district turned into a blame-game session where MLAs from BJP and other political parties trained their guns on the Government for not releasing a single rupee as grants despite severe damages due to continuous downpour and flooding.

As soon as the meeting began, BJP MLAs L. Nagendra and B. Harshavardhan targeted the Government and the District Administration for not releasing money despite severe damages sustained by the people. They were soon joined by MLAs of other parties G.T. Devegowda, K. Mahadev, H.P. Manjunath and S.R. Mahesh who minced no words and blamed the Government for the lapse.

The MLAs said that since the last three years not a single rupee has been released as rain damage grants and as such, hundreds of people are homeless and unable to restore their damaged houses. Successive rains have worsened the situation and the Government has become insensitive, they alleged. 

While Mysuru City Corporation has sent a proposal of Rs. 284 crore as rain damage repairs, all the other taluks too have sent proposals worth crores of rupees through Taluk Panchayats and Zilla Panchayats. But none of the proposals have been approved.

Replying to the concerns raised by the MLAs, the Minister said that the extent of damage and the relief measures that are necessary to be taken will be explained to the Chief Minister. Officials told the Minister that two persons died and five heads of livestock succumbed to the rain fury in the district in October. As many as 1,249 houses were damaged, including 34 in October.

Over 67 primary school buildings and 33 Primary Health Centre (PHC) buildings were damaged and crops on 147.96 acres and horticulture crops on 214.97 acres have been damaged.

The meeting discussed permanent measures to be taken for preventing the entry of rainwater into households located in low-lying areas as a lot of houses in the city were flooded with clogged drains overflowing.