Rain damage: Kerala to seek more relief

Documenting crisis: A four-member Central team, led by Vumlunmang Vualnam (left), Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, to assess the monsoon calamity in the State visits a bund breach site in Alappuzha on Sunday.

The State government will submit a revised memorandum to the Centre seeking assistance for flood relief and payment of compensation for losses in natural calamities on August 1.

This was announced after Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash, Agriculture Minister K. P. Mohanan, Chief Secretary Bharat Bhushan, Revenue Secretary T. J. Mathew and other officials had discussions with visiting inter-Ministerial Central team for monsoon calamity assessment in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday morning.

The team leader Vumlunmang, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, told the media after the discussions that team would prepare its report soon after receipt of the final memorandum from the State government. Though the team could not visit all the districts, the experienced members of the team could understand the severity of the damage caused by the monsoon from what they saw.

On the complaint about inadequacy of the Central norms on release of funds for disaster management, Mr. Vumlunmang said that it was not the mandate of the team to look at the norms. The Central assistance was purported to be only a help for immediate relief work besides payment of compensation for loss of crops as per standing norms.

Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash told the media that unlike in the past, the Central team had visited the State during the rains itself, thanks to the intervention of the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran. It could obtain first hand information from Kuttanad where 2.5 lakh people had been displaced temporarily. The loss from damage to agriculture crops across the State alone came to Rs. 480 crore. The revised memorandum would reflect this and other losses occurred after submission of the preliminary memorandum.

He said that the State had sought an assistance of Rs. 481 crore in the preliminary memorandum. However, it could claim only Rs. 221 crore under Central norms. The State government had been demanding that the losses for sea erosion and lightening should also be considered for Central assistance.