Flood victims still wait for relief

RAICHUR: It's the same story everywhere. Relief has been slow and erratic. While the rich and powerful seemed to have grabbed all benefits, the poor farm labour class is left waiting.
The biggest complaint has been that officials have not conducted a proper survey of collapsed houses. Villagers also allege that authorities have discriminated against the poor in distributing compensation.
The reaction of the state government in times of such a crisis is classic: it transferred DC Adoni Syed Saleem, as MD of the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation. The new DC, Anbu Kumar, is yet to take charge.
In Talamari village in Raichur taluk, there are around 1,250 houses. However, the district administration has issued cheques to 1,400 families. What is even more shocking is that despite spending around Rs 3 crore on compensation for loss of houses in the village alone, the government is facing a volley of complaints from hundreds of families that haven't got any relief.
``Some families have got four cheques for the same house, as four brothers live under the same roof,'' said Sankappa Jagali, a resident of Talamari village. ``That has happened just because they are powerful. Poor people like us haven't got any,'' he said. His ancestral house has collapsed. But even after 45 days of the tragedy, he is yet to get any money from the government.
Rachappa Hombal of Talamari accuses politicians and officials of swindling money. The state government has released money due for our village. But such fraudulent people have misused it. ``We have no one to complain to,'' he said.
Ameena Bi Sheikh, who supplies water to residents of Gangawar, got no compensation. ``All we got are promises,'' she said. According to her, only ``those who approached higher officials in Raichur got money. We had no means of reaching the district headquarters. We stayed here, wishing officials would come here, estimate our losses and pay us money. However, that did not happen'', she said.
The district administration is yet to complete a survey of crop loss and distribute compensation for crop loss. Villagers in Gangawar said agriculture officials had not even begun the survey in their village.
Another grey area is compensating death of cattle. Amarappa Ganadhal lost six buffaloes. He has got no compensation. The reason -- officials want him to produce the bodies of the cattle or submit copies of photos of him taken standing near the cattle. He can do neither as all his animals were washed away in the Tungabhadra and no bodies were found when the river subsided.