Tuesday, 26 October 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The State has raised the amount being provided under various heads to disaster victims in the state. The government has taken a decision to this effect on the directions of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. He directed that if this is not possible under disaster standards, the additional amount should be facilitated through the chief minister’s relief fund. Dhami also directed the formation of a high-powered committee for monitoring the reconstruction and relief works in affected areas. Stating that all possible assistance should be provided to the disaster affected, he said they should not face unnecessary inconvenience in receiving the financial assistance. The CM said this while chairing a meeting with senior officials at the secretariat to review disaster relief works here on Monday.
On the directions of the CM, the financial assistance of Rs 3,800 given to affected families for clothes, utensils and domestic items was raised to Rs 5,000. Similarly, the amount provided for completely damaged home- Rs 95,000 per building in the plains and Rs 1,01,900 per building in the mountainous regions has been increased to Rs 1.50 lakh in both the plains and mountainous regions. Assistance for partially damaged (Pucca) home has been raised from Rs 5,200 to Rs 7,500 per building while the amount paid for partially damaged (Kuccha) home has been raised from Rs 3,200 to Rs 5,000 per building. A minimum relief amount of Rs 1,000 will be permissible for land damage. Damage to the front or back courtyard/ wall will also be considered as partial damage whereas in the past relief amount was not paid for such damage. It was further decided that the electricity meters installed outside buildings and which were damaged by disaster on October 18 and 19 will be replaced free of cost by the electricity department. The relief amount in addition to standards of the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) will be provided from the CM relief fund.
Similarly, in cases of damaged buildings, if the constructions fall outside the purview of SDRF standards, assistance for the same will be provided from the CM relief fund. In addition to this, the small traders who are outside the purview of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be provided Rs 5,000 assistance in case of their shops being damaged by flood and other similar factors. Dhami further said that the roads in the state have to be made free of potholes by November 7. He directed the commissioners of Garhwal and Kumaon to regularly monitor this work.
Chief secretary Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, additional chief secretaries Manisha Panwar, Anand Bardhan, additional principal secretary Abhinav Kumar, secretaries Amit Singh Negi, R Meenakshi Sundaram, SA Murugeshan, BVRC Purushottam and others were also present in the meeting.
