A two-member central study team visiting flood-hit areas in Gulbarga district was greeted by wailing farmers, particularly women, who surrounded them and requested for a higher compensation for the loss suffered in the recent floods and rain.
While the women, tears rolling down their cheeks, were seen pleading with folded hands, the men bombarded the team with questions on the team’s inordinate delay in visiting the affected agriculture fields.
“What purpose would it serve if you visit agriculture fields two months after the floods had ruined our standing crops and washed away the precious top soil in our agriculture fields,” asked Shivaputrappa Pujari at Lad Mugali village in Aland taluk. A similar question was posed to the team members by Nagabhushan Hatti in Mahagoan village, Gulbarga taluk.
Hanifa Begum, a farmer in Lad Mugali who had lost her red gram and soya bean crop on her nine-acre agricultural plot due to floods in the Gandorinala after the reservoir gates were opened all of a sudden on August 28, complained that she had not been paid any compensation so far, though she had suffered complete loss of standing crop and her field was affected by soil erosion.
The central study team consisting of S.M. Kolatkar, Director of Oilseeds Development Corporation, and Deenanath, Joint Director (Expenditure) in the Ministry of Finance, surveyed the affected agricultural plots in Lad Mugali and Mahagoan villages, the two villages worst affected by the floods in the Gandorinala. They assured the irate farmers that all those who had suffered losses would be adequately compensated. “We are here to survey the loss and we will submit a detailed report to the Union government within a week with all facts and figures,” they said.
Delay in visitThe team members said they were scheduled to visit the affected areas in Gulbarga and other north Karnataka districts on October 9, but due to unforeseen reasons the visit had to be cancelled. The team had, between October 6 and October 8, visited flood-hit areas in other districts of the State. The team, after visiting the affected areas in Bidar, Gulbarga, Yadgir on Tuesday, will head for Bijapur and Hospet in Bellary on Wednesday, before leaving for New Delhi.
The farmers told the team that although they had lost all that was invested in kharif crop, the State government had released only between Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 7,000 per acre as compensation. “In the floods, our open wells were been closed, our motors were washed away, the pipelines damaged; but the compensation given to us was only pittance,” said the affected farmers. After the visit, the team admitted that the damage caused in the floods and heavy rain in the last week of August was heavy and the farmers had suffered huge losses.
Gulbarga Deputy Commissioner Vipul Bansal provided details on the losses and compensation payouts to the central team.
In BidarA central study team, led by K.K. Pathak, Joint Secretary in-charge of Calamity Relief, visited Basava Kalyan to assess crop loss due to heavy rain.
The team assessed the situation at Sirgapur, Gadle Gaon, Kherda and Maisalga villages and interacted with farmers. Bidar Deputy Commissioner P.C. Jaffer said that the team would submit a report to the Union government after consulting senior officials in Bangalore this week.
