Mysuru: Describing the situation in Kodagu as alarming, revenue minister R V Deshpande observed here on Saturday that it had never faced such a disaster before.
Mr Deshpande, who visited flood-hit Periyapatna , Koppa and Nanjangud taluks besides a few other places to review the rescue and relief operation in Kodagu and Mysuru districts, was speaking to DC.
“Kodagu is a small district and this kind of disaster has never taken place in its history. Over 300 people are stranded in different locations and we are trying to evacuate all of them. I have instructed the Kodagu DC and principal secretary of the revenue department to send me the reports on the loss . I have told them to take up aerial survey through drones for a more accurate assessment," he said.
Revealing that there had been four deaths, including that of a small child, he said the government was working on providing compensation to their families and also to those who had suffered losses in the recent disaster.
"Once the situation improves, I have told my officers to go to the people who have lost houses, suffered crop loss and so on and take their petitions. They will not need to come to our offices, he said. On sand mining on the banks of the river in Nanjangud and TNarsipur taluk and silt in the reservoirs being responsible for the floods, he said, "I honestly do not know about sand mining and I am not aware of the silt.
On whether destruction of the environment was causing landslides, he said, “I do not want to go into such details. Right now we are dealing with nature's fury and trying to cooperate with it."
On relief measures in Kodagu, he said two teams of the SDRF, NDRF and two teams of the Army had reached Kodagu as had teams from the Karwar Naval base, with good swimmers and boats.
