Centre approves Rs 5,908 crore flood relief to 7 states, eludes Kerala

New Delhi, Jan 07: The Centre has excluded Kerala from a calamity relief of Rs 5,908 crore released to seven States on Monday.

Kerala witnessed worst floods in two successive years, 2018 and 2019, and is still struggling to build rehabilitation of the victims.

The Home Ministry, in a statement, said the decision was taken at a meeting of a high-level committee (HLC), chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The HLC approved additional central assistance of Rs 5908.56 crore to seven states from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) of which Rs 616.63 crore will be given to Assam, Rs 284.93 crore to Himachal Pradesh, Rs 1869.85 crore to Karnataka, Rs 1749.73 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs 956.93 crore to Maharashtra, Rs 63.32 to Tripura and Rs 367.17 crore to Uttar Pradesh for floods or landslides or cloudburst during the 2019 southwest monsoon, the statement said.

Earlier, the central government has released an interim financial assistance of Rs 3,200 crore to four states -- Rs 1,200 crore to Karnataka, Rs 1,000 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs 600 crore to Maharashtra and Rs 400 crore to Bihar.

During 2019-20, the government has released Rs 8,068.33 crore to 27 states as central share from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

The central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been providing full support to states by providing timely logistics and financial resources to supplement efforts of the state governments to deal with the situation effectively in the wake of natural calamities, the statement said.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was present in the meeting, along with senior officers of the ministries of Home Affairs, Finance, Agriculture and NITI Aayog.