Revenue Minister E. Chandrashekharan has called upon officials to ensure that only eligible persons received the government-fixed compensation for people who had lost their houses and cultivated land in the monsoon calamity.
Speaking at a meeting held here on Monday to review disaster relief activities, the Minister said the compensation funds should not reach the ineligible under any circumstances. There should be no delay in providing compensation to those who were eligible, he added. Directing the officials to assess the loss at the earliest, he said that the damaged houses that were not habitable should be treated as such in the assessment.
Noting that the recent monsoon calamity in the State was an unprecedented disaster, he said the State had suffered a loss of over ₹8,000 crore. As per Union government, the compensation for a completely damaged house in a hill area was ₹1,01,900 and in other areas ₹95,000. But the State government had hiked the compensation to ₹4 lakh by giving special consideration.
District Collector Mir Muhammed Ali told the meeting that efforts to assess the loss were in their final stage. The cases of loss that could not be brought before the team comprising overseers and agricultural officers could be presented at the public hearings scheduled on August 16 in panchayat offices concerned, he said. He noted that 24 people had died in rain-related incidents since the onset of monsoon. The families of 18 of the deceased had already been given compensation, he added.
2,000 houses damaged
The Collector informed the meeting that over 2,000 houses had been damaged in the floods and landslips in the hill areas here. As many as 74 houses had been completely destroyed and 71 of them were in Iritty taluk, he said. Six relief camps were still functioning in Iritty and 416 people from 105 families were housed in these camps. Rehabilitation of the families affected by the calamity would include temporary staying facilities for those whose house had been completely destroyed.
The calamity had caused crop damage in an extent of 635 hectares. Principal Agricultural Officer Mariyam Jacob told the meeting that the agricultural loss was estimated at ₹21.26 crore. Public Works Department executive engineer K. Jisha Kumari said stretches of roads in the hill area totalling 550 km were destroyed in the recent floods and landslide.
District Police Chief G. Siva Vikram, Sub Collector S. Chandrashekhar and Assistant Collector Arjun Pandyan were among those present.