Mysuru: Even as the rainfall declined in battered Kodagu on Wednesday, four more deaths due to landslides were reported taking the toll to 16. While one death has happened due to drowning, two people were killed by falling trees and 13 died in landslides, highly placed sources confirmed.
As many as 1,019 special rescuers from multiple agencies continued their coordinated operations screening villages and brought 60 more people to relief centres while 910 people have made their way back home. Currently, 6,996 people continue to be housed at 51 relief centres.
As per a preliminary assessment, 1,118 houses have been damaged and nine animals too have died. 17.24 mm of rain was reported in 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday
Meanwhile, power supply has been restored by CHESCOM in all villages except 15. The KSRTC is arranging mini buses to ply from Sullia to Madikeri via Kerala to ensure connectivity to Kodagu. Rs 50,000 is given to each gram panchayat and Rs 15 lakh to municipal corporations to sanitise water bodies. Also with the support of the ministries of home affairs and telecommunication, measures are being taken to restore the networks of major mobile service providers including BSNL, Airtel, Jio, IDEA and Vodafone.
‘Kodagu relief dashboard and person finder’ has been developed by the revenue department which enables citizens to seek relief and also enables administrators to prioritise relief measures. 100 jeeps from five warehouses are being deployed to carry packed groceries which include food grains, oil and other
cooking material for distribution among households in all villages. One barrel of kerosene each is being given to all gram panchayats to ensure enough fuel to light kerosene lamps.
Mysuru deputy commissioner Mr Abhiram G Shankar has established warehouses to collect relief material, segregate them and transport need based material to Kodagu. Police are being deployed for security and senior officers are being deployed to oversee relief distribution in relief camps.
District Minister Mr Sa Ra Mahesh who is camping at Kodagu, held a meeting with DC Ms Srividya and other officers along with MLA Appachchu Ranjan and MLC Sunil Subramani. He directed officers of to reopen schools in Kodagu district except for 61 schools in Madikeri and Kushalnagar taluks which are worst hit by the recent rains. He also directed officers to provide gas geysers and LPG cylinders to provide hot water at relief camps.
Mr Mahesh said, “Using drones, the damages to roads must be assessed and in co-ordination with PWD and other wings, measures will be taken to restore road connectivity. The damage to houses and loss of crops must be assessed and a report must be submitted at the earliest to enable allotment of relief funds.”
He added, “To prevent such disasters in future, scientific measures must be taken and preventive walls must be constructed to avoid floods, with sand bags. Also there has to be a proper storm water drainage network to facilitate the flow of water.”
