Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 28: Governor N N Vohra has decided to meet Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh later this week to personally discuss all the major issues relating to relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims and seek Union Government’s support for the clearance of proposals contained in the Special Financial Package of Rs 44000 crore.
A Spokesperson of Raj Bhavan said that in the backdrop of severe financial crisis being faced by the State, Governor has requested the Union Home Minister for the urgent clearance of the State Government’s request for the release of funds under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
He has also sought the Home Minister’s support for the clearance of proposals contained in the Special Financial Package of Rs 44000 crore to enable the rehabilitation of the flood victims and for the restoration of the damaged public infrastructure in accordance with the provisions of the NDRF guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
It is pertinent to mention here that State Government had submitted, in October 2014, a proposal to the Union Home Ministry for seeking financial assistance under NDRF to the tune of Rs 44,000 crore which included Rs 2926.11 crore for providing relief to the affected families and temporary restoration of the damaged infrastructure.
Consequently, an Inter Ministerial Team visited the State and its recommendations have recently been considered in a meeting of the Sub-Committee of the National Executive Committee which was chaired by the Union Home Secretary. The State Revenue and Relief Secretary had attended this meeting and additional documentation sought by the Committee has also since been made available to the Ministry of Home Affairs in support of State’s claims.
The Spokesperson added that early sanction of the State Government’s claim is critical for clearing the liabilities which have accumulated on account of the temporary restoration of the public infrastructure.
The Government has addressed a detailed communication to the Union Finance Minister to seek his personal intervention for a very early and sympathetic decision for the release of funds.
According to the Spokesperson, Mr Vohra has also addressed Union Home Minister for considering enhancement in the scale of relief in respect of severely and partially damaged houses.
The Governor has highlighted that the scale of relief admissible under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) is altogether inadequate for the affected family to even partially repair the damaged house. He has called for substantial enhancement in the scale of relief to enable the affected families to carry out the essential repairs, keeping in view the considerably high cost of material and labour in the Kashmir valley.
The Spokesperson disclosed that the Governor has expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister for announcing additional relief of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 to the affected families whose pucca/kutcha houses had been fully damaged, out of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. He has urged the Union Home Minister to support the proposal for additional financial assistance being also provided in respect of severely and partially damaged houses.
As per SDRF scale, in respect of damage to private property, the affected households have been provided relief of Rs 75,000 for a fully damaged pucca house, Rs 12,600 for severely damaged house and Rs 3,800 for partially damaged house. An amount of Rs 156.25 crore has been so far disbursed to the affected families on account of more than 1.62 lakh fully damaged structures in the Kashmir division.
The Spokesperson said that Governor is meeting the Union Home Minister later this week to personally discuss all the major issues relating to relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims and seeking his support for the clearance of proposals contained in the Special Financial Package.
Meanwhile, Governor has addressed Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Union Minister of State for Textiles to seek his support for the Custom Duty on imported raw silk being increased from the current 15% to 30 %. He has requested the Minister to take up this extremely important matter with the Union Minister of Finance.
About 30,000 families, the majority of whom live in the rural and difficult areas of the State, are engaged in the production of raw silk which is estimated at about 1000 Mts.
The Spokesperson recalled that during 2011-12 when the Custom Duty on imported raw silk was reduced from 30% to 5%, it had an immediate adverse impact on the production of raw silk in J&K. Recognizing the serious adverse consequences, the Government of India revised it from 5% to 15% last year.
The Government of India has invested over Rs. 113 crore for the development of silk industry in J&K under the Catalytic Development Programme. If the raw silk industry cannot be revived it would result in the non-utilization of the extensive infrastructure for silk production established in J&K during the past years, the Spokesperson added.
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