Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday assured the Nagaland government of all possible help and said a Central team would be sent to the State to assess the damage caused by flood and landslides.
The Union Minister of State for Home arrived here on Sunday to take stock of the situation Nagaland has been facing due to incessant rain, an official statement said.
Mr. Rijiju along with Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio took off by chopper to undertake an aerial survey of the flood and landslides affected areas but returned back to Dimapur due to bad weather conditions, they said.
Mr. Rijiju said that an inter-Ministerial team would be constituted and sent to Nagaland within a week’s time to prepare a correct projection of the financial requirement.
“We will send the team to Nagaland and once they submit the report, relief would be released immediately,” he said.
Mr. Rio thanked Mr. Rijiju for showing his concern by personally visiting Nagaland and for assuring that Delhi has not forgotten Nagaland.
Main challenge
Stating that restoration work was the main challenge, the Chief Minister requested for additional fund to start restoration works besides immediate relief.
He also requested the Union Minister for granting ex-gratia to the 10 lives lost due to disaster.
Mr. Rio also informed Mr. Rijiju about the decision of all the ruling People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) MLAs to contribute one month salary for relief and restoration work.
Nagaland Chief Secretary Temjem Toy said the Union Minister was shown visual and photographic presentation of the massive damages across Nagaland caused due to the erratic nature of rainfall and the situational report of the most severely-hit districts.
(With IANS inputs)
