U.T. Khader, Health and Family Welfare Minister and Dakshina Kannada district in-charge for disaster management, chairs a review meeting at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Padil, Mangaluru, on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: H.S. MANJUNATH
Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner H.V. Darshan said on Sunday that the district administration had asked residents of 88 landslide-prone areas to shift to safer locations over the past month.During a meeting to review disaster management and relief measures on Sunday, chaired by Health and Family Welfare Minister and district in-charge U.T. Khader, Mr. Darshan said 88 areas in the district had been identified, based on technical reports, as being at risk of landslides. Of these, 35 were in Belthangady taluk, 13 in Ullal, nine in Sullia, eight in Bantwal, seven each in Mangaluru and Kadaba, six in Moodbidri and three in Puttur taluks. Though residents of 57 houses in Mangaluru, which have developed cracks, were asked to shift to safer places, not all had done so, he said.In places where there is a threat of man-made landslides due to improper cliff cutting and other civil works, notices were being issued to the owners concerned and cases were being registered. Mr. Darshan said that, based on a technical report, one FIR had been registered against the owner of the building that housed four rented accommodations in the Garodi area of the city, where three persons recently died in a landslide.Deputy Director of Public Instruction G. Shashidhar said structures in 150 government schools were not in good condition and headmasters of these schools had been told not to hold classes in those buildings. He said the State government had sanctioned ₹1.5 crore for the repair of leaking roofs in 91 government schools in Mangaluru. An official from the Women and Child Welfare Department said children had been shifted from 24 anganwadis that were in a dilapidated condition.Mangaluru City South MLA D. Vedavyas Kamath asked officials to shift children from an anganwadi near Manki Stand in Mangaluru to a nearby government school.Sullia MLA Bhagirathi Murulya and MLC Kishore Kumar Puttur said defunct rain gauge devices made it difficult for officials to assess crop damage for forwarding claims under the weather-based crop insurance scheme. Additional Deputy Commissioner K. Raju said of the 274 rain gauge devices, only 108 were working. Mr. Darshan said an agency had been asked to replace the defunct rain gauges across the State, and the new devices would be installed in the district within three months.Though it had rained heavily across the district in the past few days, Mr. Darshan said the cumulative rainfall in the last six months was 57 per cent below normal for the period. As a result, an official from the Agriculture Department said sowing had been done only in low-lying areas, while it was yet to begin in the upper reaches.Mr. Darshan said ₹1 crore was in his Personal Deposit (PD) account, while a total of ₹3.6 crore was in the nine PD accounts of the tahsildars of nine taluks, and this money would be used for disaster management and relief works.“We cannot prevent any natural disaster. The personnel in the district administration should work as a team in providing relief to persons affected by disaster,” Mr. Khader said, adding that the State government would sanction additional funds, if needed. Published - July 05, 2026 08:19 pm IST
