Aasare: a flood of promises

Aasare: a flood of promises

BANGALORE: Nearly 21 months have passed since the devastating floods — said to be the worst in the last 100 years — swept 14 districts in the northern belt of Karnataka in 2009. The floods claimed 229 lives, reduced hundreds of villages to rubble, and washed away standing crops on nearly 25 lakh hectares of land. Despite the launching of Aasare, an ambitious housing scheme to permanently shift the affected families in low-lying areas to safer places, the lives of thousands of families who lost their houses in the floods are still in a shambles as they await rehabilitation.

Under the scheme, the Government committed to build 58,672 houses to rehabilitate families rendered homeless. Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had promised to complete the project by June 2010.

The project has missed one deadline after another set by the Chief Minister and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy.

The Hindu did a reality-check on Aasare's progress in the districts (see Page 6), only to find that in most places the flood-affected continue to live in temporary tin-roofed shelters along with their cattle. In fact, the Revenue Minister's last deadline of completing the project by July this year is also unlikely to be met as construction of 5,951 houses has not even started.

While 31,698 houses have been completed so far, some of them lack amenities like water, power, drainage and roads.