A three-member Inter-Ministerial Central team visited Kalaburagi on Thursday to assess the damage caused by heavy rain during August and interact with affected farmers.
The team comprising Director for Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry K. Manohar, Rural Development Ministry Secretary S.B. Tiwari and Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority’s S. Jagadish visited two farmers in Tilgul village of Kalaburagi district.
A 65-year-old farmer Rasul Bi in Tilgul village, who has lost red gram on her 1.30 acres of land due to excess rainfall, said that she had taken up sowing for the second time after her standing crop was damaged due to rain earlier.
The team members also inspected damaged red gram crop on 10 acres of land belonging to Vinod Basnalkar in the village. The team spent five minutes at each agriculture field examining damage.
Joint Director (in-charge) for Agriculture Department Samad Patel said that red gram crop has suffered damage on 680 hectares against a total sown area of 3,291 hectares in Tilgul village, while farmers also lost cotton crop on 50 hectares. As many as 1,159 farmers in the village have insured their kharif crop, they added.
Houses damaged
The team also visited houses and interacted with victims, including Mallikarjun Dugankar, Dharmanna N. Kharge and Mariamma Kallappa, whose houses have been partially damaged in Jewargi town. The Revenue officials convinced the Central team that each owner has received ₹50,000 as relief. A sum of ₹10,000 was handed over to them recently and ₹40,000 was transferred to their accounts on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dharmanna Kharge, speaking to The Hindu, confirmed that he has not received any amount in his account as relief compensation. “I have checked my account and enquired with the bank, no amount has been released,” he added.
Deputy Commissioner Yeshwant Gurukar, speaking to the media, said that a joint survey conducted by the district administration along with the Agriculture Department and Revenue Department has recorded that standing crops on nearly 1,11,400 hectares have been damaged in the district. And, 805 houses have been partially damaged.
In the first instalment, the government has released ₹30.79 crore to 33,487 farmers across the district, Mr. Gurukar added.
