Power is yet to be restored to 280 villages in Raigad district, three weeks after Cyclone Nisarga made landfall in Murud and plunged 1,976 villages in darkness.
Raigad District Collector Nidhi Choudhary said, “Gondghar sub-station, which provides power to some parts of areas such as Shrivardhan, Mhasla, Tala, Murud and Mangaon, has been badly damaged. The repair of the sub-station is taking a lot of time. Besides, heavy rainfall has been hampering the work. We hope to restore power in most of the villages by Sunday. We have been able to restore electricity in 20 villages every day.”
Ms. Choudhary said the assessment of damages to houses, crops, and cattle has been completed. She said 1.83 lakh houses were damaged in the cyclone, while 16,060 hectares of land with coconut, mango, and cashew trees were destroyed.
So far, the district has received ₹373 crore from the State government for the relief and rehabilitation of people. “Of this, ₹72.37 crore has been disbursed as compensation to owners of damaged houses, ₹8.72 lakh for the injured and deceased, and ₹1.23 crore for agricultural loss,” she said.
Around 15,000 government schools and 186 private schools were also affected by the cyclone. Ms. Choudhary said, “Till now, around ₹66 crore has been transferred into the bank accounts of the affected people. The process of disbursing the money is tedious. First the punchnama is recorded into a software, then the bills are made.”
Banks open on weekend
Ms. Choudhary said banks will be kept open on Saturday and Sunday to facilitate disbursement of funds. “By this weekend, we hope that most of the people will get their compensation for the damage to their houses. All officers are working on a war footing,” she said.
