Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 17: Coming forward to the help of families affected due to devastating floods in the month of September last year, Governor N N Vohra today fixed January 23 deadline for the concerned authorities to ensure 100% disbursal of compensation with the mention that any further delay would be viewed very seriously.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Raj Bhawan Secretariat has dashed a communication to the Government that all those persons, who were affected during the catastrophe in the month of September last year, should get compensation by or before January 23 with the mention that on January 24 Governor would review the situation.
Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey has communicated this deadline and direction from Raj Bhawan to both the Divisional Commissioners as well as Deputy Commissioners of the flood affected districts, sources said, adding Divisional Commissioners have directed the Deputy Commissioners to ensure strict compliance to the directives by initiating all possible measures.
According to the sources, Raj Bhawan Secretariat has not conveyed as to whether Governor would take review of the progress in a meeting with the Deputy Commissioners or Divisional Commissioners. “But, one thing is clear that he wants 100% disbursal of compensation within the deadline fixed for the same”, they added.
“The direction of Governor assumes importance in the light of the fact that large number of affected families have not been provided compensation despite lapse of several months”, sources said, adding “the prevailing situation is also notwithstanding the directions of the Union Government, which had stressed that there should not be any delay in disbursal of compensation”.
As far as compensation under Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to the beneficiaries of J&K floods is concerned, sources said that National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which is a nodal agency appointed for the purpose, has pointed out several issues mainly at the end of banks.
According to the data, National Disaster Management Authority has withheld payment of compensation in case of 2773 beneficiaries for want of re-verification by the State Government on account of beneficiary name mismatch. Similarly, 1149 beneficiaries have yet not submitted bank accounts as per the data of National Disaster Management Authority.
The districts where beneficiaries need to provide valid bank account number are Anantnag (108), Bandipora (170), Baramulla (28), Budgam (74), Doda (8), Kathua (15), Kishtwar (3), Kulgam (15), Poonch (213), Pulwama (22), Rajouri (349), Ramban (38), Reasi (97), Samba (19), Shopian (2), Srinagar (286) and Udhampur (64).
The districts where compensation has been paid by NDMA but failed at bank level due to Know Your Customer/Dormat are Budgam (2), Doda (2), Jammu (2), Kathua (3), Rajouri (54), Reasi (8), Srinagar (1) and Udhampur (24).
In response to a question, sources said that Deputy Commissioners of these districts have been directed to ensure consultation with the concerned banks by deploying their field staff from Monday onwards to ensure compliance of directives from Governor regarding 100% disbursal of compensation by or before January 23.
“The issues with the banks are minor and would be resolved within the deadline fixed by the Governor”, sources said while disclosing that delay in transfer of compensation amount was due to some internal issues of the banks particularly the local ones and same would be resolved within the time-schedule fixed by the Governor.
It is pertinent to mention here that for the persons, who have lost lives in the devastating floods ex-gratia amount of Rs 1.5 lakh is being given under State Disaster Response Force, Rs 2 lakh under Prime Minister National Relief Fund and Rs 1.5 lakh under Chief Minister Relief Fund. Similarly, compensation for fully damaged pacca and kaccha houses is being released under SDRF and PMNRF.
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