The Hindu : Kerala News : State seeks Rs. 75 crore more

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Wednesday, Aug 08, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

State seeks Rs. 75 crore more

Special Correspondent

Submits supplementary memorandum to Central team

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government has sought an additional assistance of Rs. 74.43 crore from the Centre for flood relief, taking the total assistance requested to about Rs. 637 crore.

A supplementary memorandum seeking additional assistance was submitted to the Central team which concluded on Tuesday its five-day tour of the State to assess the damage from natural calamities.

Speaking to the media after discussions with the team members, Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said that additional assistance had been sought in view of fresh reports about losses in fisheries, forest, water resources and agriculture sectors. The Minister said the State would submit additional memorandums to the Centre highlighting the damage to roads and losses on account of sea erosion, as these are not covered under the norms for assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund.

More grain promised

Mr. Rajendran said the team had promised higher allocation of wheat and rice for relief.

It had sought a report on the reasons for the unusually heavy rainfall reported on June 17 and 18.

The Agriculture Department and the Public Works Department had submitted reports to the team, in addition to the ones submitted by the Revenue Department.

He said the team would be submitting its report in a week’s time. The report would then have to go through the inter-ministerial committee and a high-level committee before the Union Cabinet could sanction assistance.

Besides the Revenue Minister, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan; Public Works Minister T.U. Kuruvila; Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran; Forest Minister Benoy Viswom; Chief Secretary Lizzie Jacob; and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sheela Thomas; participated in the discussions. The team members later left for Delhi.

The team, headed by S. K. Chattopadhyay, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, has as members T.K. Sivarajan, Director (Monitoring), Central Water Commission, Coimbatore; C. Ekambaram, Superintendent Engineer, Thiruvananthapuram; R.K. Verma, Director, Central Electricity Authority; K. Manoharan, Director, Directorate of Tobacco development, Chennai; S. Halder, Senior Research Officer (Water Resources), Planning Commission; Krishna Kumar, Director, Union Department of Rural Development; A.K. Raina, Joint Director, Ministry of Finance; Joyce Mathews, Regional Director of Health and Family Welfare; and S.V. Singh, Under Secretary, Union Department of Drinking Water Supply.

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