The seventh day of Dasara Yuva Sambhrama held at the Open Air Theatre in Manasagangothri here last evening saw the participating students sending out messages on Water Conservation, Save Kodagu and Swachh Bharat through their songs and dance.
While the students of Government Arts, Commerce and PG College, Hassan, gave a message on conservation of environment and water, the students of Virajpet First Grade College presented a dance drama for the song ‘Janana-Janana Yarado Papa, Marana-Marana Yarado Shaapa.’ The students later highlighted the devastation caused by floods and landslides in Kodagu and gave messages on the importance of forest conservation.
The students of Jnanadeepa First Grade College danced to the song ‘Mysuru Dasara Yeshtondu Sundara’ which received appreciation from the audience. JSS Women’s College students of Chamarajanagar, all dressed in green, walked up on the stage and highlighted the importance of conserving, protecting and planting trees besides sending out messages on conservation of forests.
Messages such as women empowerment by students of Devaraja Girls Government PU College, Indira Gandhi Government FGC, Sagar, on Kannada and Culture, Madikeri’s Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa College students on Freedom Struggle and Mangaluru’s Dr. P. Dayananda Pai-Dr. P. Satish Pai FGC students sent out a message on Swachh Bharat through their dance.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / October 07th, 2018
Jyothy Institute of Technology organised ‘Run for Coorg’, a 5K run, near its college campus at Thataguni in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Bengaluru :
Jyothy Institute of Technology organised ‘Run for Coorg’, a 5K run, near its college campus at Thataguni in Bengaluru on Saturday. More than 2,000 people, including music director Gurukiran and actor Aniruddha Jatkar, participated.
People from various parts of the state, including Mysuru, Davangere, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada, participated. They have decided to rebuild a village in Kodagu that was devastated by the recent floods. The event was flagged off by Gurukiran and Aniruddha Jatkar.
The Institute along with Rotaract organised the event with an aim to reconstruct Kodagu and rehabilitate the affected people. They have planned to reconstruct a village in Kodagu and help people who lost their houses and other properties, said Rajesh K of the Institute.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / October 08th, 2018
Deputy Chief Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara, who unveiled the statue of Field Marshal K.M.Cariappa at Miller’s Road Junction near Kodava Samaja in Vasanthnagar, Bengaluru, this morning, is seen with Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Raj, Samaja President Ravi Uthappa, Advocate M.T. Nanaiah, former Karnataka Media Academy Chairman M.A. Ponnappa and others.
It may be recalled, a life-size bronze statue of Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa, the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, was unveiled at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai during June 2018 by his son, retired Air Marshal K. C. Cariappa.
Also, Chief of the Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat had unveiled the bronze statues of Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa and General K.S. Thimayya at Cauvery College in Gonikoppal, Kodagu district, in November 2017.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Gallery> Photo News / September 26th, 2018
With donors from across the state contributing to CM’s Relief Fund, exclusively released to Kodagu district, over Rs 62 crore has been collected as on September 20.
Madikeri :
Following the natural disaster in Kodagu district, the numerous families that had lost houses and other properties were handed over Rs 3,800 – Rs 1,800 for clothing and Rs 2,000 for utensils and other household goods (per family)- under SDRF/NDRF guidelines.
Since the damage has been severe and the process of permanent rehabilitation will take some more time, the district administration including Deputy Commissioner Sreevidya P I and Kodagu District Minister Sa Ra Mahesh had proposed a request to the State government to increase the amount from meagre Rs 3,800/- per family to Rs 50,000, in a letter dated 28 August.
While the State and National Disaster Fund guidelines do not allow any changes to be made to the gratuitous funds, the state revenue department had stepped into people’s aid and had forwarded the proposal of releasing Rs 50,000/- each for the distressed families from the Karnataka Chief Minister Relief Fund-Natural Calamity 2018. The proposal, which was forwarded to CM H D Kumaraswamy was later forwarded to the Cabinet Committee for approval, which has now been sanctioned.
With donors from across the state contributing to CM’s Relief Fund, exclusively released to Kodagu district, over Rs 62 crore has been collected as on September 20. As many as 1,156 families have been directly affected by natural disaster and 186 houses have been damaged completely, 530 houses have been damaged severely and 404 houses have undergone partial damage.
While Rs 320 crore has been allotted to Karnataka under SDRF, an additional state fund of Rs 400 crore is provided to the state.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / September 22nd, 2018
Taking note of the geographical factors typical of hilly Kodagu also known for its origin of the river Cauvery, Sreevidya began vacating people the next day from danger-prone areas.
When the whole of Kerala reeled under floods last month amid rain-triggered landslides along its eastern mountains, just east of upstate Malabar, Kodagu too was hit by the calamity. Yet, if the people of southern Karnataka’s scenic district largely escaped the effects of the monsoon fury, a share of the credit goes to a Malayali bureaucrat’s prompt administrative initiatives.
A native of Kollam district in Kerala, P I Sreevidya was only eight months old with her capacity as the deputy commissioner of Kodagu when her office got information last month that the district along the Western Ghats was set to receive “very heavy and unusual rains.” Far from laughing off the alert received on August 12 through various agencies, the 2009-batch IAS officer swung into action.
Taking note of the geographical factors typical of hilly Kodagu also known for its origin of the river Cauvery, Sreevidya began vacating people the next day from danger-prone areas. Relief camps came up within hours.
As it rained cats and dogs on August 15 and 16, Kodagu lost 2,500 houses while crops perished in acres of farmlands. Roads developed cracks, some simply vanished.
Sreevidya, who had earlier served as Kodagu zilla panchayat chief executive officer for six months from mid-November 2013, opened a control room this time by her office, coordinating rescue and relief operations. She ensured that the district got aid from all the three arms of the service, besides the IAF’s special Garud commando service and the state police, fire force as well as the National Disaster Response Force under the Centre.
Joining her in the efforts were zilla panchayat CEO Prashanth Kumar Mishra, police chief Suman D Pennekar, MLAs Appachu Ranjan (Madikeri) and K G Bopaiah (Virajpet) along with other people’s representatives and social workers. The office of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy would enquire about the developments on an hourly basis. There were opportune interventions from state chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar.
“All these ensured that we could minimise the loss to property and the impact on public life,” says Sreevidya, who belongs to Chakkuvarakkal near Kottarakara and had secured 14th rank in her civil service exams. “I couldn’t even call home those two days.”
The bureaucrat’s four-year-old son Madhav, sensing the gravity of the situation, threw no tantrums and stayed quietly with his grandparents in the camp house.
As for Sreevidya’s husband, he is also a top officer. T Narayanan, who is Pathanamthitta district police chief, was that time busy in a similar rescue operation in his area. There, in south-central Kerala, the Pamba had swollen dangerously, invading places along both its banks, much to the trauma of their residents. “Believe me, I didn’t know his place was that badly affected. Neither did he know anything about the Kodagu floods,” says Sreevidya. “We were both cut off that time.”
Today, Kodagu people are all praise for their deputy commissioner. Social media posts, especially on Facebook, speak of Sreevidya’s administrative efforts that assuaged their misery.
source: http://www.english.manoramaonline.com / Home> Women / by Malayalam Manorama Correspondent / September 17th, 2018
Raj Bhagat Palanichamy of WRI India is preparing open source free online tools and maps to deal with floods.
As Bengaluru and Chennai stare into a future which is likely to be dotted with more floods, Raj Bhagat Palanichamy is busy working on a defence strategy. He is preparing an online tool and maps for Chennai and Bengaluru. Raj works as a GIS and remote sensing analyst with WRI Ross Cities program at WRI (World Resources Institute) India. A not-for-profit global research organisation, WRI works on ideas to create sustainable cities.
During the recent floods, he had released maps of Kodagu and Kerala that aimed at helping authorities and people involved in rescue work by sharing information. On whether his maps could achieve their objective, the young researcher says, “I got an SOS call from the disaster management wing of the Revenue Department of Karnataka, one morning asking for these maps. I shared with them an interactive website which gave them access to these maps. I think drone surveys were commissioned in Kodagu after consulting our maps. With Kerala, there was no direct channel of communication between us and its government. Also, the authorities in Kerala were right in the thick of action so we couldn’t really interact. The idea was to tell the governments that there are ways to seek information. Social media was interested. My tweets had 40,000 impressions.”
With high possibilities of flooding occurring in Bengaluru and Chennai in the coming months, Raj is now working on maps for both the cities and plans to release it five days before the meteorological department predict heavy downpours. Raj reveals that one can extract more accurate data closer to the date. An hour of observation is needed to generate maps. “Our mandate was never to deal with a crisis on a short-term basis. The 2015 Chennai floods made us realise that there is a need to have a structure for a short-term solution to save lives. We are now working on an open source online tool that will predict the areas to be most affected and also monitor those areas. The online tool will be ready sometime in 2019 as it is stuck right now due to paucity of funds but the maps will be there soon, though.”
Raj feels the conversations should be on handling the climate change. “Like how to diversify our cities so they don’t get overburdened. While the government looks at flooding with an engineering perspective — building and clearing canals, the main thing is rainwater harvesting. We could use parks to hold rainfall and avoid constructions on flood plains.”
He says the flood tool can send out a warning. The findings can be integrated into the planning to identify critical areas and avoid construction there. The tool will help in identifying critical buildings such as hospitals and schools to come up with a proper defence mechanism against floods.
Raj feels too much dependence on dams is not recommended. “Traditional ways of water conservation and improvement of water efficiency and productivity need to be the focus. The government shouldn’t focus on mega projects.” He also feels that the gap between analytics and planning should be bridged. “There are 100 of research projects about the flooding in Mahanadi river but these have not been integrated into planning because researchers probably don’t know how to reach out and publicise their work. The Amaravati floods very often not just because of the infrastructure but also due to lack of planning.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Shailaja Tripathi / September 18th, 2018
Seva Bharathi and Lions Club had also organised another wedding of a woman who had lost her home in the landslides in Kodagu.
Lions Club of Madikeri and Seva Bharathi organised the wedding of the daughter of a family which lost their home to landslides, at Madikeri on Wednesday.
Mysuru:
Yet another family at a relief centre in disaster-hit Kodagu conducted the marriage of their daughter as scheduled on Wednesday with the support of Seva Bharathi, Lions Club of Madikeri and others.
Ranjitha, daughter of Sanjeev and Sumithra of Makkandur in Kodagu, got wedded with Ranjith, son of Madhusudan and Thangamani of Kannur, Kerala at Sri Omkareswara temple with over 300 people joining their wedding reception at Sri Narasimha Kalyana Mantapa in Madikeri.
Mr K.K. Damodar, president of Lion’s Club, Madikeri told Deccan Chronicle that Ranjitha’s family had lost their home in the landslides during the recent rains. Presently, they are housed at a relief centre in Kushalnagar. “Ranjitha’s wedding was scheduled at Makkandur on Wednesday but following the disaster, her parents had decided to cancel her wedding. But we along with Seva Bharathi decided to organise the wedding. The couple left for Kerala on Wednesday after the wedding.,” he said. Seva Bharathi and Lions Club had also organised another wedding of a woman who had lost her home in the landslides in Kodagu.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Politics / by Shilpa P, Deccan Chronicle / September 17th, 2018
Mangalore varsity to provide document copies for free, conduct special exams
Mangalore University will take a host of measures, including waiving of examination, tuition and other fees, to help college students, whose families have lost properties in the recent landslips and floods in Kodagu.
According to Kishore Kumar C.K., acting Vice-Chancellor of the university, attendance will be given to students who could not attend classes owing to the floods.
The university will give copies of education-related documents, such as marks cards, for free to those who have lost them in the floods. Special examinations will be held for students in colleges where lessons could not be completed on time.
Mr. Kumar told The Hindu that the university has provided free accommodation to students who have lost their houses, in the Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa College in Madikeri. There are 20 such students in the college now.
He said some colleges in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have come forward to admit such students who cannot continue their present education in Kodagu thanks to road-connectivity issues. The university will approve the admission of such students.
Those education institutes have come forward to provide free hostel facility to such students.
Mr. Kumar said the university will call a meeting of principals of all 20 colleges in Kodagu on September 6 to sort out issues relating to classes, conduct of examinations and approval of admissions.
Many colleges under the university are now collecting funds to help students of Kodagu.
He said the social work students of the university will conduct field survey in Kodagu and come out with a report on measures to be taken to bring back the life to normality.
The report will be submitted to the government. The university was now collecting data of the students who have been affected. The university will conduct National Service Scheme camps in Kodagu to help in restoration activities.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – September 05th, 2018
Tashma Muthappa, an International-level Throwball player who was living in a flood relief camp along with her family has now been rehabilitated. She, along with her parents, will move to a rented accommodation in Madikeri on Monday. Also, Kodagu District Minister S.R. Mahesh has promised her a government job.
It may be recalled that Star of Mysore had published a report on Aug. 30 under the title “Floods shatter sports star’s life in Kodagu.” The report had highlighted the plight of Tashma, who brought laurels to Karnataka and India by winning national and international tournaments. First she was forced to give up her sporting career and take up a data entry job to support her family and second, her house was destroyed in floods and landslides.
Tashma’s house, built just one-and-a-half-years back in Second Monnangeri at Madikeri was washed away and all her medals, certificates and hard-earned money were lost. 23-year-old Tashma was to get married in December but now her wedding has been postponed to April next year as the jewellery worth Rs. 3.5 lakh too were swept away.
Following the publication of the report that was widely shared in social media, help started pouring in to Tashma and her family. They will move to a fully-furnished house at Kannika Layout near Madikeri Race Course Road on Sept. 3. Singapore Kodava Samaja has sponsored Rs. 50,000 to be paid as advance to the house and has also sponsored the monthly rent of Rs. 10,000 for one year.
The Singapore Art of Living team has sponsored utensils, food, fuel and other requirements to the family and Chandrashekar and friends have volunteered to look after the day-to-day needs of the family till it can sustain on its own.
Meeting Tashma, Kodagu District Minister S.R. Mahesh has assured her that he will secure her a government job.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / September 01st, 2018
Meanwhile, 23 more people from relief centres returned home as Kodagu continued to receive light rainfall on Saturday. Dr Pennekar Superintendent of Police, Kodagu.
Mysuru:
As Kodagu limps back to normalcy after its recent floods and landslides that claimed several lives and left the coffee land in distress, the district has two women officers, Deputy Commissioner P.I. Srividya and Superintendent of Police Suman D. Pennekar to thank for the pivotal roles they played in restoring order. Working with 1,200 personnel of different agencies, and officers from different departments, they helped in rescuing 4,300 people stranded as a result of the natural disaster that created havoc in the coffee plantations and buried hundreds of homes under mud and debris of landslides.
On Saturday, a team of 338 DySP and PSI probationeries of the Karnataka Police Academy (KPA) led by its director, Vipul Kumar, visited Kodagu and talked to Dr Pennekar about the Kodagu police’s handling of the situation. For the 33 -year -old police officer, who is an ayurvedic doctor and a 2013 batch IPS officer, Kodagu is her first assignment as SP and she had reported for duty in the district when the monsoon was at its peak, on July 15.
“I have not seen the sun shine since I came to Kodagu. It has been a huge experience, which will last me for the next ten years,” said Dr Pennekar, speaking to Deccan Chronicle.
Recalling the rescue operation, she said 160 policemen and officers from Kodagu helped the rescuers at the ground level. “I got 100 additional police men every day from other districts in the southern range for VIP security. We also got 15 officers of different ranks each day from different districts of the southern range for patrolling. A 100 home guards were posted at the check post and relief centres. All senior officers, including DG Neelamani supported me in handling the situation,” she added.
Meanwhile, 23 more people from relief centres returned home as Kodagu continued to receive light rainfall on Saturday.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by Shilpa P, Deccan Chronicle / September 02nd, 2018
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