Articles by "Madikeri"
Madikeri (K'taka), Aug 25: They walked for miles on slippery trails, crossing cascading streams and braving landslides.
Many were aged men and women, whose lives had gone awry in the wake of the torrential rains that lashed Kodagu district in Karnataka, bordering Kerala, claiming at least 17 lives and leaving a trail of destruction since August 12.
Several people were carried on shoulders to the relief camps, where they sat waiting for their names to be called to receive food and other relief materials.
The residents of Kodagu not only lost their homes due to the incessant rains and floods, but were also cut off from the rest of the world due to frequent landslides.
Since August 16, the villagers living in and around Madikeri were rescued and taken to the relief camps.
The much-needed support was a result of a joint relief-and-rescue operation undertaken by the RSS-affiliated Seva Bharati and the Usmaniya Charitable Trust (Bhadravati), an NGO run by Muslims.
Talking to PTI at a relief camp here, Anjali, a resident of Kodagu, said, "We feel so relieved and confident about life...We had lost all hope...Just then, the Seva Bharati and the Usmaniya Charitable Trust came to our rescue and provided succour."
"They rescued and brought us here. Some of them carried the aged people. For some, it was quite a challenge to wade through the muddied and slippery terrains and cross the cascading streams coming down the slopes of the hills.
"The experience still haunts us, but hope fills us when we sit for meditation and yoga in the morning. Even I chant 'Om', though I am a Christian," she added.
Some of the flood-hit people have great challenges before them as their houses were destroyed in the nature's fury.
One of them, Lakshmi, said, "My house has collapsed. I hope the government will help people like me."
Around 1,000 families were provided relief materials by the Seva Bharati and the Usmaniya Charitable Trust.
Mussavvir Basha, general secretary, Usmaniya Charitable Trust said they spent Rs 5 lakh for providing rice packets, water bottles, biscuits, free ambulance service, first-aid kits etc. to the marooned people.
"There was a barrage of fake news and hatred being spread on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. Some mediapersons too, I am sorry to say, are dividing the country into north and south.
"In this backdrop, the joint operation should serve as an inspiration to people to bring unity in this hour of crisis," he said.
Basha and five others of the trust visited the RSS camp at Madikeri and proposed the joint operation.
Both the organisations took part in the rescue-and-relief work from August 21 to 24, before the members of the Usmaniya Charitable Trust returned to Bhadravati in Shivamogga district.
Expressing happiness over joining hands with the RSS-affiliated NGO, Usmaniya Charitable Trust president JBT Babu said they rescued 10 people.
"They (Seva Bharati) were very kind and treated our volunteers with the respect they deserved. We are moved and hope such concerted efforts will inspire other NGOs run by different faiths or communities to come together to serve the needy at times of crisis," he said.
Kodagu district RSS pracharak Avinash said the two organisations working together to reach out to the stranded people showed the way to solidarity and social harmony in a divided world.
More than 5,000 people have been rendered homeless in Kodagu district, where rescue-and-relief operations are underway in full swing. (PTI)
Madikeri (Karnataka), Aug 23: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will visit tomorrow the floods and landslide-ravaged Kodagu district, bordering Kerala, where rescue and relief operations are underway in full swing.
The torrential rains that lashed the district last week has left a huge trail of destruction and claimed at least 16 lives. Thousands have been rendered homeless.
Sitharaman is expected to reach Kushalnagar tomorrow morning and scheduled to visit affected areas including Kuvempu Layout, Sai Layout and talk to people there, the Karnataka BJP said.
She will then travel to landslide-hit areas of Madapur and take stock of the situation. After that, she is scheduled to visit a relief camp in Madikeri and interact with the inmates there.
The defence minister will also hold meetings with the district administration and other officials at the Deputy Commissioner's office on the relief and rehabilitation work.
Sitharaman, who is Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, is the second Union minister to visit the flood-ravaged district, after D V Sadananada Gowda, who also hails from the state.
The visit by the Defence Minister comes a day after state BJP Chief B S Yeddyurappa said he had apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation in Kodagu.
Meanwhile, former chief minister Siddaramaiah along with Pradesh Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao visited affected areas of the district and took stock of the situation today.
With rains subsiding in the last couple of days, relief and rehabilitation work have gained momentum in Kodagu, where operations to rescue those stranded due to floods and landslides have by and large been completed, according to officials.
The administration was now focused on providing relief and rehabilitating those at the relief camps, clearing blocked roads and restoring electricity.
However, a total of 1,019 rescuers from various agencies arestationed in Kodagu and are screening villages along with NGOs and local community.
An amount of Rs 30 crore has been released to Kodagu by the state government to take up relief works, officials said, adding engineers and personnel from Madras Engineer Group are being deputed to Kodagu for road restoration and debris clearance.
Schools that were shut for over 20 days reopened today, with teachers conducting classes to students at relief camps across the district.
Fifty-one relief camps have been set up in Kodagu that are currently housing 6,996 people.
According to officials, till last evening 4,450 were rescued and brought to safety.
According to preliminary estimates, around 1,118 houses have been damaged.
In Dakshina Kannada, another flood-hit district, five deaths have been reported and over 360 houses have been damaged, according to preliminary estimates.
Rescue teams along with locals are making efforts to rescue animals stranded and affected due to the natural calamity.
Officials said a three-member team from NGRI (National Geophysical Research Institute) headed by Ragavan visited Kodagu and set up a seismic monitoring centre in Navodaya School to closely monitor seismic activity in and around the area.
Also, the three-member team comprising Dr Srinivasa Reddy, Director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre and Dr H M S Prakash (former DDG, GSI) are conducting geo-technical studies in landslide affected region of Mangaluru.
Noting that there is loss of certificates, documents and identity cards due to flooding, officials said the government will set up common service centres that will act as single-window system to issue duplicate these documents.
Documents will be issued free of cost or at a nominal cost as deemed appropriate, and there will be no need to file an FIR. (PTI)
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