MADURAI
After the State informed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday that compensation was paid to a petitioner who had lost his tiled house in the impact of Cyclone Gaja, the court observed that the direction was passed to identify all such persons to pay compensation and not the petitioner alone.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar observed that the Department of Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation had to pass an order to ensure that Gaja Cyclone Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Scheme was extended to all those who had lost their tiled houses.
The court observed that it was not satisfied with the compliance report and sought a new report on August 1. The State informed the court that a compensation of ₹10,000 was paid to petitioner S. Muruganandam from Thanjavur. He had claimed that though the authorities had assessed the damage to his house, no compensation was paid.
The HC Bench had earlier directed the State to take a policy decision to fix the quantum of compensation taking into account the fact that it was yet to make provisions to compensate those who had lost their tiled house due to the impact of Cyclone Gaja. The quantum of compensation should be equal or adequate enough to enable the victims to reconstruct their houses, the court said.
It had earlier observed that though the government had come forward to announce compensation to the victims who had lost their properties, crops and trees, no provision was made to compensate those who had lost their tiled houses.