Farmer swept away in Badami floods

Hubballi: As the floods continued to bring misery to several districts of Mumbai-Karnataka region with more villages submerged by the overflowing Malaprabha, Ghataprabha and Krishna rivers, a 50-year old farmer, Ramappa Honnannavar,  was washed away in the gushing water in Badami taluk.

 A 38-year-old farmer, Prabhu Makanur of Ranibennur taluk, committed suicide by hanging as he could not bear the loss of his onion and maize crop because of heavy rain in the past few days.  Two girls had a lucky escape as they were rescued in time before they were  washed away by an overflowing  stream  in Mekhali village, Raibag taluk. Several villages have remained cut-off following  release of 35,000 cusecs of water from the Malaprabha reservoir in Savadatti taluk and traffic has been suspended on the Gadag-Badami state highway as the bridges have gone under  water. Houses have collapsed in many villages, compounding the people's misery.

The world heritage site of Pattadkal has turned into an island with the water from the overflowing Malaprabha river flooding its surroundings. The  site could  go under water  if the floods don't recede in a day or two. With rocks weighing over a 100 tonnes  slipping a few metres in Gokak, tahasildar Prakash Holeppagol and other officials have rushed to the spot to shift the people to safer ground and an NDRF team has arrived from Pune to  clear the rocks.

Meanwhile, people once again vented their anger at the government's lack of initiative in coming to their rescue since the last floods. At Hirehampiholi, villagers, who have moved to a relief camp in adjacent Sureban village in Ramdurg taluk owing to the floods,  gheraoed the local legislator, Mahadevappa Yadwad,  accusing him of failing to keep his promise to build temporary sheds for them after they lost their homes in the August floods.