Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has reiterated his request to the Centre to exempt the State from paying over ₹113 crore to the Indian Air Force (IAF) for the relief and rescue operations it had carried out during the catastrophic floods that ravaged the State in August last.
In a letter to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, Mr. Vijayan said the State government had received “an air bill to the tune of ₹113,69,34,899 from the IAF in connection with the rescue operations carried out during the 2018 floods.”
Two back-to-back extreme weather events, Cyclone Ockhi in 2017 and the deluge in 2018, had caused immense damage to life and property. The disasters had put the State's "fragile financial situation" under severe duress.
A post-disaster needs assessment by the United Nations had pegged the amount required for the restoration of flood-damaged infrastructure at ₹31,000 crore.
However, the additional assistance received by the State from the National Disaster Response Fund was a meagre ₹2,904 crore. The State government had launched Rebuild Kerala Initiative to ensure a better quality of life and a high standard of living for citizens in the aftermath of the floods.
The government required more resources to meet its aim and was striving to raise funds from varied sources.
The Chief Minister hoped Mr. Singh would appreciate that in the current scenario, the State was hard-pressed to find “such huge amount due to the IAF from the State Disaster Response Fund.”
He said he hoped Mr. Singh would favourably consider Kerala’s request to exempt the State from paying the IAF for its relief efforts. Mr. Vijayan had made a similar demand to the Centre earlier.
