Hassan: Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa has said that state government has amended Section 94C of Karnataka Land Revenue Act to regularise houses constructed on revenue land in rural areas.

During a meeting with officials organised to assess the drought situation in the district, at the Zilla Panchayat’s Hoysala auditorium here on Saturday, Thimmappa directed assistant commissioners (ACs) and tahsildars to collect information of houses built on government lands to regularise them.

Thimmappa said the government has taken measures to regularise houses constructed on ‘bagair hukum’ and ‘gomala’ lands. He said revenue law had been amended after 40,000 applications were rejected due to complications in form numbers 50 and 53.

“Village accountants and panchayat development officers should visit every village under their jurisdiction to assess the situation and ACs and tahsildars should organise meetings every week to dispose petitions immediately,” he said. He said government had already enforced new rules to regularise houses in Shivamogga district and instructed Deputy Commissioner V Chaitra to enforce rules in Hassan district too.

A cabinet sub-committee comprising Thimmappa, Health Minister Ramesh Kumar, Cooperation Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader to study and assess the implementation of relief measures in drought-hit areas, visited a few areas in the district to assess the ground reality.

Ramesh Kumar took the officials to task for delay in execution of works of drinking water projects. Officials said seven taluks in the district had been declared drought-hit and crops on 1.61 lakh hectare had got destroyed. As per guidelines of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the district administration submitted a proposal for Rs 11.56 crore.

“The authorities have spent Rs 7.30 crore to manage the drought situation and only Rs 1.28 crore is remaining with the district administration for emergency. Authorities have released Rs 35 lakh to each Assembly constituency in the district to supply drinking water through tankers and water is being supplied to 36 villages through tankers,” the DC said.