Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Oct 14: Union Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences (Independent Charge) and MoS Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Personnel, Pensions, Grievances, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, today said that Centre will provide assistance to the flood victims of the State beyond their expectations, inviting thunderous applause from the gathering at packed SKICC here.
Dr. Jitendra Singh was welcomed with thunderous applause while Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather, and State Government faced protests during the launch function of Special Credit-cum-Relief camps set up by various banks for the flood affected people at SKICC here.
In his address,Dr Jitendra Singh said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that there will be no shortcomings by the Centre in providing all possible help to the people affected by the floods. We will do whatever is needed to help the people of the State.”
He assured the people that the Centre would give assistance to the flood victims beyond their expectations. “If you ask for two paisa we will give you four paisa”, he declared.
The Minister, without naming anybody, said, some people wanted Centre to declare the floods as a national disaster, but the Government was willing to give more than what was prescribed under national disaster.
“They (State Government) wanted the floods to be declared as a national calamity. We are ready to give more than what can be given under national calamity. The problem is not the supply but the distribution and the utility,” the MOS in PMO said.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said that New Delhi has left no stone unturned to provide succour to the flood victims. “We sent everything here, the material and money. It was delivered here on time but the problem is with the distribution”, he added.
The Union Minister suggested to the State administration to hold an open session with the people to listen to them and address their grievances and involve representatives of civil society in distribution of relief.This is important to bridge the communication gap and ensure transparency in your initiatives,he said.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said some of the “habitual” critics now allege that we have done nothing but these gentlemen were nowhere to be seen when the Central Ministers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the State during the first few days of flooding and opened a Central Secretariat here. “The floods began on September 4 and 5, and on September 6, I was here with the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh. On September 7, Prime Minister arrived here. Every Minister including Health Minister, Dr Harshvardhan and Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari visited the state to take stock of the situation. We also opened Central Secretariat here two days after Prime Minister’s visit”, he said.The problem with some of these “habitual” critics is that they are highly upset and frustrated because they been left with nothing to criticise us for,he said.
The Minister said there is a communication gap and that is why the protests have taken place during the launch ceremony. He said, “I have two humble suggestions for the State Government. First, they should have an open public session where the affected people can highlight their grievances and the Government addresses them on spot.”
“The Government should involve the representatives of civil society in the distribution of the relief. The representatives can be of any party, who stand above political considerations. This way representatives would identify the affected people and there would be no allegations of nepotism against you,” Singh said.
“The Centre did everything to help the people when even the Civil Secretariat was under water. Still it is being said by some that nothing was done. There are some of our friends, who are habitual critics. They get upset when there is nothing left to criticise,” Singh said.
Pandemonium broke out during and after the speech of Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather. The flood-affected people criticised the State Government for failure to provide succour to them. They also said that the State Government and its ministers are “thieves”.
Dr Jitendra Singh got up for his speech soon after Rather’s and pacified the people in the gathering, saying: “I have understood what you are saying and they (State Government) too have. Because some of us failed to recognise our follies and misdeeds, that is why did God wreak a catastrophe of such magnitude on us?” he said.
The Minister also said that there should be a study to assess if the flood that devastated Kashmir valley was “partly natural and partly man-made”. He said this while responding to the question of a flood victim who alleged that Rather was hiding in Income Tax building during the floods.
“Though the time is not ripe for such a thing right now as we are still coming out of the rescue and relief, it has to be seen where we lacked and analyse if the calamity was a totally natural one or partly man made,” the MOS in PMO said.
Singh said that God brought this devastation so as to make them (State Government) understand. His comment about the State Government was received with thunderous applause. He said the tragedy was an opportunity to learn from the “deeds and misdeeds”.
The Minister said a special assistance scheme, which is most liberal in the history, for flood victims has been devised to give succour to the flood-affected people of the State.
“It is the most liberalised loan policy ever in the world. Is there any bank which can give loans to the people without any profit to itself? Under this scheme, rescheduling would be done for those who already had loans so that such cases are not deemed as non-performing assets”, Dr. Singh said.
The Minister said: “Loans upto Rs 10 Lakh would be provided to the people at the rate of 8.5 per cent. National Bank has given money to the scheduled banks at the rate of 6.5 per cent so that such banks provide loans on 8.5 per cent with a moratorium of two years and seven years of repayment.
“Rs 10 lakh would be provided for the industry and those who have working capital, 25 per cent of that would be accepted as a loan. We are in talks with Insurance Companies also”, Singh said.
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