Punjab sought relaxation in norms from Central team to double the compensation amount for flood victims

Punjab News : Punjab Chief Secretary Mr. Anurag Verma has requested the central team to give relaxation in the norms of assistance to the victims to compensate them for the damage caused by the floods. He said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already written a letter to the Union Home Minister saying that there is no shortfall in the state disaster relief funds to compensate the victims, only a change in the norms for compensating the damage is required, so that the loss of people can be fully compensated. Punjab has demanded to increase the compensation amount for the loss of life and property.

The seven-member Inter-Ministerial Central team on a visit to Punjab to make a ground level assessment of the damage caused by the floods in the state due to continuous heavy rains in the Punjab and hilly areas, after visiting various districts, today held a meeting with the Chief Secretary at the Punjab Civil Secretariat here. During the meeting, after showing the presentation of department-wise flood damage, the Chief Secretary submitted a detailed report to the Central team.

Chief Secretary Mr. Verma said that in the letter written by the Chief Minister, the amount of compensation given to the victims has been demanded to be almost double, just like the amount of compensation given to the family of the deceased has been increased from Rs. 4 lakh to Rs. 8 lakh. The demand for damaged crops has been increased from Rs. 17,000 to Rs. 34,000, for Milch animals from Rs. 37,500 to Rs. 75,000, for damaged houses from Rs. 1,20,000 to Rs. 2.40 lakh. He said that the State Government is standing by its people in their hour of crisis and has funds to provide compensation, but only because of the norms of the Union Home Ministry, it is unable to provide adequate compensation. Therefore, there is a need to change these norms.

During the meeting, the head of the Central team, Financial Advisor of the National Disaster Management Authority Ravinish Kumar said that his team visited many states and after Himachal Pradesh, Punjab suffered the most damage. Another member of the team came from ISRO, Head of Flood Mapping and Scientist/Engineer Dr. A.V. Suresh Babu said that it is also clear through the satellite images that the heavy rain has caused a lot of damage in Punjab and many areas have come under heavy floods.

Giving details of the damage caused due to floods, the Chief Secretary said that Rs. 605.38 Crore related to Agriculture in the state, Rs. 173.10 Crore to PWD (Roads and Buildings), Rs. 159.36 Crore to Water Resources, Rs. 44.38 Crore to Urban Infrastructure/Local Governments, Rs.43.66 Cr for Rural Development and Panchayats, Rs.26.85 Crore for School Education, Rs.17.50 Crore for Power, Rs.9.98 Crore for Fisheries, Rs.5.66 Crore for Water Supply and Sanitation, Rs. 4.45 Crore for Health and Rs.230.26 Crore for miscellaneous. A total loss of Rs. 1320.59 Crore has been incurred. In this regard, the Chief Secretary wrote a letter to the Union Home Secretary and informed that about 1500 villages in 19 districts have been affected due to floods in the state. Apart from the loss of crops, people have also suffered loss of life and property.

The meeting was attended by Director Agriculture and Farmers Welfare BK Srivastava, Under Secretary Rural Development Ministry Kailash Kumar, Director M & A Dte Central Water Commission Ashok Kumar, Assistant Director Expenditure Department of Finance Ministry Anjali Maurya and SERE of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Navin Kumar Chaurasia from Central team, Special Chief Secretary Revenue KAP Sinha, Principal Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation DK Tiwari, Principal Secretary Power Tejveer Singh, Principal Secretary Health VP Singh, Principal Secretary Water Resources Krishan Kumar and Principal Secretary PWD Nilkanth S Avhad.