"Where is our food?" This was the question that residents of Madapura, a village about 25 km from Madikeri, posed to Somwarpet Tahsildar Mahesh when he visited the village on Tuesday. Before he knew, the Tahsildar was surrounded by angry residents, who allege that the relief materials to the camp in Madapura were diverted and stored in a few homes in the village and at Chennamma Junior College.
Though TNM visited the college and found the relief materials stored in a classroom, Mandappa, the principal of the college, disputes this claim. He says that the relief material is being stored at the college to be used at a later stage.
Angry residents question the Tahsildar.
"We intend to distribute the materials to everybody. We had surplus relief materials arriving at the Madapura relief camp and insufficient space to store them. So we decided to store the surplus material here, to ensure that there is enough material available for those affected for the next three months. Besides, we don't know how long people will have to stay in the camps," says Mandappa.
Mandappa admitted that he received complaints that few trucks carrying relief material were diverted to houses in the village.
The relief camp in Madapura houses 375 people displaced from villages such as Mukkodlu, Moothoklu and Hattihole, where severe landslides prompted the Indian Army's Dogra and MEG regiments to start an extensive rescue operation.
The operation is in its final stages and most of the people in these villages have been rescued to safety. However, rumours of relief material not reaching the camp caused panic.
Madhu Bopanna, a plantation owner near Madapura, who coordinates the operations at the camp, with assistance from the district administration, said, “We received reports that relief material meant for the camp was hoarded somewhere.”
Tahsildar Mahesh sought time to investigate the allegations. Meanwhile, volunteers at the Madapura relief camp, too, have started handing out relief material in a systematic manner after NCC cadets arrived at the camp on Monday.
Incidentally, such rumours are afloat in several places in the district.
Most of the 34 relief camps in the district are being run by volunteer groups. The District Collector has allowed groups to form relief camps on their own after assessing the scale of the disaster.