Udupi : K. Raghupati Bhat, MLA, said on Monday that the State government wanted to provide immediate and comprehensive relief to those whose houses have been damaged by floods. He was speaking at a programme at the Taluk Panchayat here to distribute cheques to 64 persons whose houses have been damaged by floods in the Udupi Assembly Constituency under the Flood Victims Rehabilitation Programme. He also distributed the Bhagyalakshmi bonds to 76 beneficiaries.

Mr. Bhat said that the government was giving relief depending on the extent of damage caused to houses during the monsoon under the Flood Victims Rehabilitation Programme. The damaged houses have been categorised into those with damage less than 25 %, damage above 25 % to 75% and damage above 75 %.

There were 36 beneficiaries with houses that suffered less than 25 % damage, while there were 16 beneficiaries in the 25 % to 75 % slab and 12 beneficiaries in the above 75 % slab. The total amount of money distributed through cheques to these 64 beneficiaries taken together was ₹ 85 lakh, he said.

The government had drawn up these slabs and decided upon the relief amount after the devastating floods in the districts of North Karnataka. The same yardstick was being followed in Udupi district also.

In the flood-ravaged districts of North Karnataka, the government was giving ₹ 5,000 every month to be paid as rent for 10 months to those who had lost their houses. Those who had lost their houses completely were being given an amount of Rs. 5 lakh, while those whose houses had suffered less than 25 % damage were being given a relief of Rs. 95,000, he said.

Those whose houses were totally damaged in the district should understand that the relief amount for reconstruction of houses would be released depending on the extent to which they had built their new houses, he said. Mr. Bhat said that the Bhagyalakshmi Bond scheme had been started by the State government in 2008. But its implementation was lackadaisical in the last five years due to change of governments during this period. Now the scheme was being implemented with renewed vigour. The aim of the scheme was to secure the future of the girl child, he said.

Vice-president of Zilla Panchayat Sheela K. Shetty, president of Udupi Taluk Panchayat Neeta Gururaj and Zilla Panchayat member M. Sudhakar Shetty were among those present.