Kodagu disaster : Siddaramaiah demands PM visit to Kodagu
‘Constitute experts committee’
Madikeri, August 23: Former chief minister and coalition government coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Kodagu as it has incurred heavy loss due to flood, rains and landslides and more than 6000 people were affected and announce the compensation.
After visiting various relief camps here on Thursday, Siddaramaiah said that he came to know about the huge loss due to natural disaster. So, the Prime Minister should visit the district, survey the affected areas and announce the compensation immediately. He would welcome the decision of announcing Rs 500 crore Kerala. In the same manner, let him announce the relief package to Kodagu district, he demanded.
He would advise the state government to constitute an experts committee to assess the loss of properties and lives in the district. He had asked Minister Krishna Byre Gowda to create job opportunities under MNREGS to affected people. He had also advised Housing Minister UT Khader to prepare a programme to ensure temporary and permanent settlement to more than 6000 affected people, he added.
The district administration should take steps to admit the students to hostels immediately. After 1924 and 1964, the district has received this record rains. In Madikeri only, more than 225 inch rainfall was recorded. Because of the continuous rainfall, some villages were disappeared, he said.
Priority should be given to lay roads, power connection, construction of houses, ensuring education to the children, healthcare facility and food grains to all affected people irrespective of APL and BPL beneficiaries, he said.
The Congress MLAs and MPs have decided to give their one month salary to Kodagu and another month’s salary to Kerala flood victims, he said.
The government has been doing well in taking up relief measures. But it should be accelerated further. KPCC has also constituted a relief committee led by Rajya Sabha Member Ramamurthy and the committee would visit the district soon. Later, it would be decided on how to help the district. Already, 50 doctors from KPCC Doctors Cell reached the district and involving in relief works, he said.
Around 600 km rural roads and 150 km PWD roads were damaged in the incident. He was in touch with the Chief Minister and concerned ministers in taking up relief measures in the district. He would also discuss the issue in the Coordination Committee meeting as well, he said.
KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the Relief Committee constituted by the party would collect the donation and contribute to the district. Already, the material collected from the party has reached the district. The party would extend all its support, he said.
KPCC working president Eshwar Khandre, former MP Vijay Shankar, MLC Veena Achaiah, former MLC MC Nanaiah, district Congress president Shivu Madappa, and others were present.
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PM's silence on Kharge's insult by Himanta is his consent: Rahul
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the use of "derogatory language" against party chief Mallikarjun Kharge by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is an insult to the entire SC/ST community, and the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter "is not his helplessness, but his consent".
"If the prime minister sees an attack on the dignity of crores of Dalits in the country and does not speak up - he is not only shirking his responsibility, but is also a party to that insult," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
Gandhi said the use of "vulgar and derogatory language" by Sarma against Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Kharge "is entirely condemnable, shameful, and unacceptable".
"Kharge ji is a senior and popular Dalit leader of the country - his experience, stature, and prestige are unparalleled. Insulting him is not an insult to one individual alone, but also to crores of people from the SC-ST community in this country," he posted.
This, he said, just reflected the "old and premeditated mindset" of the BJP-RSS and was nothing new, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha said.
"Whether it is the insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar, belittling Dalit leaders, or personal attacks on representatives of the SC-ST community - the history of BJP and RSS bears witness that whenever a Dalit leader speaks the truth, they stoop to humiliate him," he posted.
"This is their ideology, this is their true character and face," he added.
Posing a direct question to the PM, he asked, "do you support Himanta Sarma's use of this language? Your silence is not helplessness, it is consent."
Sarma earlier hit out at Kharge, claiming that he was "speaking like a madman" due to old age, after the latter put the onus on central agencies to probe the charges made against the Assam chief minister.
Slamming the Congress chief, Sarma said, "Kharge is ageing and is speaking like a pagal (madman)."
