The Madikeri-based Codava National Council (CNC) has alleged that the funds collected by the Karnataka government and other agencies for the relief and rehabilitation of landslide victims in Kodagu have not reached the victims.
Addressing presspersons in Mangaluru on Tuesday, NU Nachappa, President of CNC, said a cluster of 35 villages in the north-western region of Kodagu in the catchment area of the Harangi reservoir were affected by massive landslides in August.
‘Misinformation’
He said the Karnataka government and other agencies had collected more than ₹5,000 crore for relief, claimng that the entire Kodagu district had been affected. But, in fact, only 12 per cent of Kodagu had suffered landslides.
Stating that these funds had not reached the landslide victims till now, Nachappa said the money was being diverted for other purposes by the State government. Landslide victims are under great mental agony and uncertain about their future, he said and alleged that “the government is busy rehabilitating Rohingyas as landslide victims to depopulate the indigenous Kodava tribe and re-populate with non-Kodava migrants.”
TheCNC will conduct 28th annual Codava National Day celebrations in Madikeri on December 2.
This year’s theme is to motivate and inspire the landslide victims of 35 villages to live with dignity and honour, he said.
Scheduled status
Stressing the need to include the Kodava tribe in the scheduled list of the Constitution, Nachappa said the CNC had demanded that the Centre conduct an ethnographic survey of the Kodava tribe in Kodagu district to include the tribe in the Constitution’s scheduled list.
Following the Centre’s direction, the Karnataka government had released ₹11 lakh for the purpose of the survey and entrusted the work to the Mysuru-based Tribal Research Institute in 2016. Though the survey was conducted between November 16 and December 18, 2016, it was stalled midway, he said.
He alleged that a section of politicians from old Mysuru region is responsible for stopping this survey.
The ethnographic survey would have helped include Kodava tribe in the scheduled list of the Constitution. He said the entry into the list would help protect, preserve and ratify the inherent land rights, traditional habitation, language, cultural heritage, and geopolitical aspirations of the Kodava community.
The Kodava tribe is as indigenous to Kodagu as Pandits are to Kashmir, he said.
Now the tribe has been excluded from the welfare schemes and social empowerment programmes as it is not in the scheduled list, he said.