GADAG: Though villages in Gadag are limping back to normalcy post the recent floods, several residents are facing a peculiar problem. The houses of flood victims here are flooded with relief material. Their homes now resemble a grocery shop and a few are trying to sell relief material like rice and wheat flour bags, tooth brushes, shampoo sachets, soaps, bedsheets, clothes and talcum powder to local kirana shops.
A few are also diverting the relief material to their relatives’ homes. “People here need not buy anything for the next two years,” said a resident.While some villages along the highway received the maximum aid as lorries could reach them easily, a few got a raw deal as they lost road connectivity owing to a bridge collapse.
“This is the reason why a few got more relief material. They should have returned the surplus material to the administration. We have learnt of a few residents trying to sell relief material ... we oppose such acts,” a GP member from Konnur said.
‘Sir, we have 300 rice bags. Interested?’
A rice mill owner from Gadag said he has been getting enquiries whether he was interested in buying rice bags in bulk. “I got a call from a person who claimed to be calling from Konnur village. He asked if I was interested in buying 300 rice bags of 25 kg each. I scolded him and asked him not to call me again,” he said.