Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda speaking in the Legislative Assembly announced on Friday that the state government would provide a compensation of Rs 297 crore for damages caused by rains.
The minister stated that 133 people died this year due to rains with some having lost their lives in rivers that were in full spate and some others due to lightning.
He said that there had been excess rainfall during both monsoon and post monsoon seasons and added that the Rivers Tungabhadra, Krishna and Bheema had overflowed at times.
While speaking of the temporary financial relief provided by the government to deal with excess rainfall, the minister articulated the need to find permanent solutions to prevent floods.
He said that according to the National Geographical Survey, there are 863 landslide-prone gram panchayats in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu,Udupi, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga districts. To prevent these landslides, the CM has directed to provide Rs 425 crore for 2-2.5 years.
Gowda noted that the World Bank had provided a loan of Rs 3,000 crore for remodelling around 300 km of the roughly 1,000-km long stormwater drains in Bengaluru (Rs 2,000 cr) and for the BWSSB to finish work on underground sewages (Rs 1,000 cr). Another Rs, 2,000 crore was provided by the Disaster Mitigation Fund for the rest of the state.
