Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Sept 28: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today hoped that the Centre will support flood hit Jammu and Kashmir in its reconstruction after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a reference to helping flood victims of the State in his address to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.
“I have no doubt that given @PMOIndia pointed reference to helping flood victims of Kashmir in @UNGA address we will get support,” Omar wrote on twitter.
Chief Minister said Government is preparing a memorandum of losses which will be submitted to the Centre for assistance in reconstruction of flood affected areas. “Memo to be sent to GoI is being readied”, he wrote.
Omar hoped that the Centre will relax State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) norms for the flood victims of the State. “In 2005 Uri quake, it was 1.3 Lac and 2010 Leh cloudburst, 2.5 Lac. So how can Srinagar get 75K in 2014?” he asked on twitter.
Chief Minister said Rs 75,000 is not the final relief amount to be paid to the affected people of the State. “Can’t understand this deliberate attempt to use twitter to spread lies – 75,000 is NOT the final figure for compensation for houses. I’ve said this countless times since the floods – it’s INTERIM relief based on the ceiling under SDRF norms pending final package,” he wrote.
In the meantime, a senior Government official said here that almost all the departments today submitted their estimated flood losses and Government is preparing a memorandum to submit to the Centre for liberal assistance.
Opposition has slammed Government for Rs 75, 000 as relief for fully damaged houses but Government says that under SDRF norms they can’t pay more than that. However, Government is preparing memo seeking liberal assistance for enhance relief under SDRF to damaged houses and human losses.
Government is estimating Rs 25, 000 crore estimated damage to the Government and public infrastructure excluding the business losses for which they are entitled to Rs 2500 crore under SDRF norms. However, they are seeking liberal Central assistance.
As per the Government estimates around one lakh houses were destroyed in the floods and over 1,25 lakh were partially damaged. Government is seeking Rs 5 lakh compensation for fully damaged and Rs 2 lakh compensation for partially damaged houses from Centre.
Government is also seeking ex-gratia relief of Rs 7 lakh for death of over 281 people who lost their lives which amounts to Rs 19.88 crore. However, under SDRF norms State is entitled to Rs 4.26 crore as ex-gratia relief for human losses.
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