When the raging waters receded after the worst deluge to hit the State in a century, Ernakulam district was left staring at a daunting task of cleaning up and, more importantly, rebuilding. The statistics based on a preliminary survey by State agencies only drove home that reality.
The post-flood challenges were broadly classified into three categories — damage to houses, public assets and livelihood. Damage to houses was subdivided into totally damaged and partially damaged houses with top priority being given to reconstruction of fully damaged houses. “In less than a year, we have completed the construction of 1,250 out of the 2,445 houses disbursing ₹62.86 crore. The remaining houses are likely to be completed in the next three months. In terms of partially damaged houses, ₹352.35 crore has so far been disbursed among 85,818 out of the 97,471 eligible beneficiaries,” said District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla.
The district administration had to fix the number of actual beneficiaries by eliminating certain categories through field visits and verification of land documents, especially in the case of fully damaged houses.
“Owners of all 1.79 lakh houses that remained submerged for two days were given an immediate relief of ₹10, 000. A survey was then conducted employing civil engineering graduates to find the extent of structural damage to houses, which put the number of partially damaged houses at around 89,000. However, it was clear that many beneficiaries were either missed out or could not be accessed to fix which an appeal cell was opened at the District Collectorate,” said Vishnu Prasad, a collectorate clerk.
Around 30,000 appeals were received till December 3, the last day for filing appeals.
A Public Works Department engineer-level team was send to verify all the 33,000 appeal cases plus all beneficiaries eligible for ₹1.25 lakh and more for another round of verification.
The disbursement of assistance through a treasury software was under way when elections were declared putting a spanner in the process. At that time, assistance to around 30,000 beneficiaries was pending. It resumed after the election results were declared much to the relief of beneficiaries.
