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Udupi taluk panchayat is all set to tackle monsoon woes by taking appropriate measures.  Responding to a question over the measures taken to tackle the rain fury here on Monday, tahsildar Guruprasad said meetings were held to ensure proper security during the floods or any other rain-related incidents. 

Sixty-five houses have been partially damaged and six are completely damaged. The taluk panchayat will spend Rs 3.20 lakh to repair the damaged houses and Rs 90,000 each will be provided to the families whose houses were completely damaged, he added. 

Guruprasad said the Forest Department has been told look for huge and old trees which pose threat during the rainy season. PDOs have been given guidelines to manage the monsoon calamities. The owners of 15 boats have been contacted and three boats have been purchased to manage the flood situation. They are pressed into service at Uppuru, Kilinje and Padubidri. Low-lying areas in Brahmavara and sea erosion in Kaup and Padubidri areas are problematic areas in the taluk. The direction of the water flow has been affected by the recent work on national highway, he added. 

Earth movers have also been kept ready to tackle emergencies, he noted. The tahsildar said the government has started a new initiative called ‘Over the Table Service’ for caste and income survey of all the families in the taluk. This will prevent the delay in providing caste and income certificates. The certificates will be available online now. 

Caste certificates will be considered permanent while income certificate should be renewed every five years, he added. 

For SC/ST communities, both income and caste certificates will be permanently considered, the tahsildar said.

He added that the gram panchayats will be supreme heads to provide no objection certificates (NOCs) to industrial units. 

He said no gram panchayat has come forward to house the solid waste management unit and added that the administration will not entertain any objections when it comes to setting up crematorium and solid waste management unit.

In the beginning of the meeting, there was a huge hue and cry by the Congress members about equal representation in the standing committees. 

Member Sunitha Shetty said they will not accept just three congress members in the standing committees. The party, however, will play an effective role as the opposition, she added. 

Another member Suresh Shetty demanded proper coordination between the gram and taluk panchayats for effective implementation of the schemes envisaged by the government. 

Shetty said the meetings of the taluk panchayat members and the PDOs should be convened. The boat owners, who lent their boats for rescue operations during last monsoon, were not paid properly, he added.

The members also expressed concern over irregular payment for labour works taken up under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The labour days under the joint venture of toilet constructions linked with MGNREGS are also not paid, they claimed. 

Member Bhujanga Shetty said the 4 km-long stretch connecting Seethanadi river to Varahi river should be borrowed to eliminate the water woes in the area. The water problems in Kadur, Heggunje and Shiroor will be sorted out, he observed.