Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Sept 27: Government is preparing a memorandum to submit it before the Centre to seek liberal assistance for restoring Government and public infrastructure that was damaged in devastating floods across the State.
An official said that as per the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) norms State is entitled to Rs 2500 crore compensation for the damage to private and Government infrastructure but the State Government is approaching the Centre to seek liberal assistance.
The official said that there is around Rs 25, 000 crore estimated damage to the Government and public infrastructure excluding the business losses. “Under the SDRF norms we can get Rs 2500 crore but we are seeking liberal assistance from centre”, he said.
The official said that around one lakh houses were destroyed in the floods and over 1,25 lakh were partially damaged. He said that under SDRF norms the State can provide Rs 70, 000 for a fully damaged house but “we are approaching to Centre to enhance it to Rs 5 lakh.”
The official said that Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, has taken up the matter of enhancement of compensation for the damaged houses to Rs 5 lakh.
The official said that for the damaged houses the norm is around Rs 15, 000 compensation but Government seeking its enhancement to Rs 2 lakh.
The official said as per the SDRF norms for the fully damaged one lakh houses, State is entitled to Rs 700 crore but “we are seeking liberal assistance of Rs 5000 crore”. “Similarly for the partially damaged 1.25 lakh houses, we are entitled to Rs 187.5 crore but we are seeking Rs 2500 crore”, he said.
The official said for deaths, the exgratia relief under SDRF is Rs 1.5 lakh and “we are seeking Rs 7 lakh for deceased.” The death toll in floods was 284 persons and State is entitled Rs 4.26 crore as ex-gratia relief for them but Government is seeking its enhancement to Rs 19.88 crore.
The official said that loss to the Government infrastructure is around Rs 4000 crore and we are entitled to Rs1400 crore for its restoration and for rebuilding we need over Rs 4000 crore. “We are also approaching centre for liberal assistance for restoring damaged Government infrastructure”, he added.
The official said that crop losses are around Rs 5000 crore and under SDRF norms compensation State can get Rs 500 crore for farmers. He said that compensation is not for the losses but for re-starting their farming activity. “We are also approaching to centre for compensating the losses of the farmers”, he added.
The official said that around 3000 Government vehicles were also damaged in floods as majority of these vehicles were stationed at places that were inundated.
The official said that Government suffered huge equipment and furniture losses in floods as majority of the computers and other equipment was mostly on ground floors of these buildings. He said that the four major hospitals also suffered huge losses to the equipment and Government’s priority is to restore these hospitals at an earliest.
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