The houses built in Manvi taluk under ASARE scheme is still yet to be the given to the flood victims.
In the past 30 years, three major floods occurred in Raichur. Due to this people who resided near Tungabhadra riverbanks lost their houses
Bhibhi Fathima, head of a joint family, in Chikalpurvi village, said,” Floods happened 30 years back also, from then I have seen floods. I’ve been here since then and have seen all the floods. From small to big, I have come across all. All our life we have lived next to the river.
A girl child in our house by the time we could take her out, drowned in the water, and we lost everything like groceries and 60-70 quintals of cotton. We were left with nothing to eat, no clothes to wear and for 7-8 days there was no one to ask or check on us! It was raining continuously; we had no place for shelter and after 8 days we cooked something and ate. What we finally received was a cheque of Rs 4000 and some help from people of Bengaluru.”
In 2009, there were floods in Raichur district that affected numerous villages, with 19 villages in Manvi Taluk experiencing the worst situation. It continuously rained for six days, causing floods that washed away the muddy houses in the affected area.
“We moved to this new place a month ago. We still have houses there (old settlements)! All these years we stayed next to the river only. They say we got compensation, but we haven’t got it! That’s the reason we have come here and settled. All the muddy houses that we had before been destroyed. After those got destroyed, we built it again, again and again. We built it for the third time to date,” Fathima added.
“They made us stand in the water and took videos to give compensation. Even though we are poor, we didn’t ask for any compensation. But we asked only for a house to live in. The new houses which were built by the government. We asked only for the houses built by the government nothing else, they didn’t do that also, so we came here.” Fatima added.
Shift villages which were built under the ‘Asare scheme’ by the Karnataka government in association with some CSR funds to provide free houses to the flood victims who lost their houses, during the floods in 2009. These houses were built far away from the flood zone in a height area.
Muddappa Nayak, a Villager, in Chikkalpurvi village, said, “We have fought many times to get rights paper of houses in shift villages. To date, there have been three meetings organized by Tahsildar, to distribute the” Hakku Patra”. But it didn’t work. For name’s sake, it’s a new shift village but houses are not in good condition. If they had given the ‘Hakku Patra’ to the people of those houses, the houses would have been in good condition because it’s not distributed these houses are not in good condition. There are no doors or windows bricks everything is taken away, today we can’t even see one proper house there.”
In the Raichur district after the floods, with the help of some corporate companies, the government bought land and gave 1lakh to build each house. There are11,500 houses in Raichur out of which 3,308 houses are still vacant. In Chikkalpurvi village alone the government had built 550 houses out of which not a single house is distributed to the people. Today, the condition of these houses has turned out to be very bad, it’s so bad that even if it is distributed today, no one can live in these houses.
Jagadeesh Chour, Tahsildar, Manvi taluk said,” Due to flood situations, the Government built 19 shift villages in Manvi taluk. Out of 19 villages, we have shifted 10 villages to the shift villages. Now we are left with nine villages which are supposed to be shifted to new locations. These villages are not shifted because of certain problems like no proper roads to go there and court cases in some villages. People here are also reluctant to shift because they have attachments with their old lands, panchayats are also developing the old settlements with electricity and other facilities where which is also a reason for people to not shift to their old settlements. People here are also seeking ‘Hakku Patras’ on a caste basis, which is not advisable and feasible by the government. If we address these issues in ‘Grama Sabha’ and convince the people, then we achieve the target of shifting them to new villages. We demand the government identify the beneficiaries and a lot of the houses. As there are no houses there, the government should also rebuild the houses.”
Due to a lack of basic facilities such as roads, water, and electricity, the residents are not willing to move.
Peer Sab, a Villager in Chikalpurvi village said,” There are no basic facilities like water, road and electricity. If there are no basic facilities, how will people go there? Only if there are basic facilities people will go.”
Anand Bhovi, another villager in Chikkalpurvi village said,” Till date, the government has failed to give ‘Hakku Patra’ and in last five to six years the houses have been completely damaged. Dhadalponnur, Katriki, Arnalli and other shift villages there is no one residing. Because there is no proper road, water or electricity. Electric poles, wires, bricks, doors and windows, everything is taken away or robbed. The government should act against them because this scheme is being misused. People here are not ready to move in because of a lack of basic facilities. Tahsildar tried two times to solve this but without any facility, how can people stay there?
Tahsildar says if people are ready to move in, we will try solving the issue.
” If people are ready to move into their new settlements, we’ll take up the case with the government. To get the houses repaired. And we will initiate actions against the defaulters.” Chour added.
Houses were built according to the survey numbers given by the panchayat. In Chikalpurvi houses then were 550 and Shift village had that number of houses. But today people are fighting to get houses for every individual in the village.
Ruchir Punjabi, Chair, of the School of Policy and Governance, said,” There is a big gap between panchayat, Municipality and housing board, they have to engage the community better. They need to talk to them and understand what their problems are. Based on the feedback they get they have to improve with this people may be willing to move into the housing project.”
” The distribution of houses won’t work, even in the past District Collector, Tahsildar and others had come here three times. In this village, if they distribute a few people will get houses and the other half won’t get. So, distribution of these houses will not work,” Fatima added.
