MADURAI: Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday urged the State Government to initiate measures for distributing relief tokens to the affected families at their doorstep to ensure that only the flood-hit benefited.

Expressing sorrow over the deaths in the Chennai stampede, he said: "We are very sad to know that many people were killed in a stampede at K.K Nagar in Chennai while trying to obtain relief coupons. This shows that people are in distress and they are very eager to obtain relief at the earliest."

The distribution should be done after a thorough verification and tokens distributed at the doorstep to avert politicisation of relief distribution, Mr. Naidu told reporters here.

Central relief `inadequate'

He said the Centre had not understood the magnitude of the flood havoc in terms of damage to infrastructure and loss of crop and cattle.

It should provide adequate relief to the State soon. The announcement of a second instalment of Rs. 500 crore as relief was inadequate, as 22 districts in Tamil Nadu had suffered extensive damage. Steps should be taken to allocate an enhanced amount at the earliest.

Revise CRF, NCCF norms

The Centre should revise the guidelines of the Calamity Relief Fund and the National Contingency Calamity Fund to enable States affected by floods to receive a higher sum.

"There is an urgent need to amend the rules because the guidelines were formulated to tackle drought situation and the nominal compensation given under CRF cannot do justice now.''

Further, the Centre should waive the interest on loans extended through cooperative banks and nationalised banks to farmers and pave the way for disbursal of fresh loans to them. Provision should also be made to compensate for the cattle loss.

On its part the State Government should be transparent in relief disbursement.

It should convene a meeting of all parties and offer information on relief and rehabilitation measures, thereby minimising the scope for misuse or politicisation of the issue.

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