BJP too assesses damage but invites farmers’ ridicule

Hubli: While Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was touring flood-hit areas of North Karnataka, a team of BJP leaders also assessed the damage in remote villages of the region on Saturday.

But their tour, wrapped up in a couple of hours, was confined to merely four villages of Navalgund taluk in Dharwad, inviting ridicule from several farmers, who saw it as more of a symbolic visit, lacking in seriousness.

Many of the villagers voiced their displeasure against the BJP’s tour which seemed more of a formality. Meanwhile, concluding their short tour at noon, state BJP president Prahlad Joshi and former Chief Minister, Jagadish Shettar accused the government of neglecting the floods in North Karnataka and offering paltry compensation to the victims.

Speaking to reporters, they claimed the government had failed to take the flood situation seriously and regretted that the district in-charge ministers had not even visited the region despite the grimness of the situation.

Mr Joshi alleged that the state government had directed the officials to under assess the damage and demanded that it pay at least Rs 40,000 as compensation for each of the houses that had collapsed.