Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala government has decided to immediately release financial aid of Rs 10,000 to every family that has been found affected by the recent natural calamities.
The aid will be disbursed before the Onam festivities and payment has commenced from Monday. The state government has released Rs 47.98 crore from its disaster response fund for this purpose. This is over and above the Rs 100 crore released as emergency relief assistance to those affected by floods and landslides in the state last month.
According to initial data, a total of 90,000 families had to stay in relief camps during the recent floods. The respective district collectors have been asked to submit the list of others affected by the floods and landslides soon.
In order to expedite the payment of aid, the amount will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of the flood-hit from the treasury. Last year, the amount was transferred first to the district collectors and then to the taluk offices before it reached the affected.
Those who shifted to the houses of their relatives and other places during the floods will also be eligible for the aid. According to preliminary findings, around 10,000 families had moved to such safer places.
To prepare of a list of such families, a team comprising the panchayat secretary, a village officer, a panchayat engineer and volunteers will carry out inspection visits to houses. As reported earlier a mobile application named Rebuild Kerala has been built by the IT Mission for this purpose.
The team will also assess the damages caused to houses by the floods and landslides during their visit. In order to avoid complaints that were reported last year, the team is now equipped to take photographs of damages and for better documentation of other aspects.
The compensation will be decided after assessing all the data obtained.
