Mata Amritanandamayi trust donates 100 houses for flood victims in Bangalore - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Well-known spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi has donated 100 houses for the flood victims in Karnataka state. The Mata Amritanandamayi Math, a public charitable trust, has plans to donate over 700 newly built houses to the flood victims of the state. On Wednesday, the first lot of 100 houses were given away by Mata Amritanandamayi who handed over their keys to Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa in Bangalore. These houses have been constructed in Karnataka's Raichur and Attur districts within a span of 20 days and the rest of the houses will be handed over to the government over the next few weeks. "Today, I have a good fortune to receive the keys of the 100 houses (built) in record 20 days for the flood-affected (victims) of north Karnataka," Yeddyurappa said on this occasion. About five million people were crammed in temporary government shelters during 2009 floods, described by officials as the worst in many decades in south India and which killed about 250 people, mostly in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Floodwaters swamped millions of acres of cropland, including sugarcane plantations, prompting worries of a fall in sugar output in Karnataka, the country's third-biggest sugar producer. Flood victims were sheltered in over 1,200 temporary camps. They included about 2.5 million people from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh who lost their homes.