Maharashtra’s Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay WadettiwarThe Maharashtra government on Friday criticised the central government’s relief assistance package for losses suffered by the state due to Cyclone Nisarga in June this year.
Earlier in the day, a high-level committee, headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had approved a relief package of Rs 268.59 crore to the state for losses due to the cyclone.
Maharashtra’s Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar, however, said this is not enough for a state that has suffered as much as Rs 6,048 crore owing to the calamity.
Contending that the state had sought an assistance of Rs 1,040 crore from the Centre following a detailed assessment of losses, Wadettiwar accused the Centre of meting out “step motherly” treatment to the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress led state.
Firing a salvo at the BJP-led formation at the Centre, the Maharashtra minister said, “It is regrettable to note that the state is being treated unfairly. The BJP mustn’t forget that the state has given it 105 MLAs,” said Wadettiwar.
According to officials, the cyclonic storm had damaged over two lakh houses with 2,285 houses fully damaged. It has also ravaged crops and orchards on around 12,000 hectare of agricultural land, with parts of Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Raigad districts the most affected.
Apart from Maharashtra, the Centre also announced relief assistance to five other states — West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim — which had also suffered damages caused by cyclones, floods and landslides during the year. The collective relief assistance announced to these states on Friday was Rs 4,381.88 crore.