Kerala Govt announces Rs 6 crore monsoon relief

Thiruvananthapuram, May 30 : The Kerala government today announced a relief of Rs six crore for monsoon related incidents throughout the state due to soil erosion and floods.

Informing this here, Revenue Minister K P Rajendran said while nine coastal districts would get Rs 50 lakh each, four other districts would receive Rs 30 lakh each.

Relief camps would be set up where ever needed, he said adding that a meeting of the cabinet tomorrow would decide on giving free ration to the affected.

Mr Rajendran said a high-level delegation would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and submit a memorandum on the urgency of the matter seeking more Central assistance. Already a letter had been sent to the Union Government in this regard, he added.

The government was firm that there should not be any hurdle in providing relief to the people due to financial problems, he said and adding that all district collectors have been instructed on this.

While a committee with the MLA as chairman in the affected districts, especially the coastal areas would be formed, a meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister had been convened next month for evaluating the situation, the minister said.

Stressing that there was a need for a permanent Disaster Management mechanism in the state, Mr Rajendran said a high-level committee with Revenue Principal secretary as chairman and Local revenue commissioner as convener had been constituted in this regard. The others in the committee were Home and Health secretaries, DGP, Met Director and the Railway Divisional Manager.

Mr Rajendran also said the Rs 6.4 crore relief for drinking water announced last week would not be diverted for monsoon related relief measures as the coastal and the tribal areas would still have problems related to drinking water despite copious rains. On the Centre's apathy to release funds, he said the state had received only Rs five crore from the Union Government towards monsoon related calamities. ''Kerala had asked for Rs 350 crore and the Centre allotted Rs 17.9 crore. But the Centre had then said that Rs 12.7 crore out of the Rs 17.9 crore was advance payment and not for that year's relief,'' he said and added the delegation which would meet Prime Minister would take all these into consideration.

He was also critical of the Tsunami funds and said groyne were not completed in the specific time and this had led to soil erosion in some places this monsoon. Even the houses built for tsunami victims had not been handed over, he added.

UNI