Puducherry: The Puducherry govt has sought 600crore financial aid from the Centre to take up relief and rehabilitation work in Puducherry and Karaikal which were battered by Cyclone Fengal.
In a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah, chief minister N Rangasamy urged the Centre to depute a team immediately to assess the damage caused by cyclone and release funds for relief and rehabilitation work.
He said the Puducherry govt assessed the tentative cost of damage caused by the cyclone at 614.88 crore. He said most roads have been badly damaged. He requested the Union govt to sanction 427 crore to lay urban and rural roads in the Union territory "as a special case."
Rangasamy said most of the working population lost livelihood due to incessant rain. The Puducherry govt announced 5,000 aid to each ration cardholder. An amount of 177 crore is required for this purpose.
Rangasamy enclosed a copy of the memorandum seeking financial assistance with the letter. "This report is submitted as a tentative demand to take care of urgent needs and a detailed report of damage will be submitted by the Puducherry govt to the Union home ministry soon," he said.
He said Puducherry received a total rainfall of nearly 168.88cm for this year against the annual average of 138.9cm. Four people were killed in rain-related accidents. He said, 1.5 lakh houses were inundated and 154 houses were severely damaged, and 315 huts and 4,168 houses were damaged partially due to falling of trees and heavy wind.
He said 14,315 fishermen lost their livelihood and 976 boats were damaged during the storm.