The Centre on Friday has approved an additional Rs 2,500 crore to Kerala for the relief and rehabilitation work, three months after the devastating floods hit the state. In August, the Centre had sanctioned an advance of Rs 600 crore for relief.
The Kerala government in September had submitted a memorandum to the Centre seeking Rs 4,800 crore for relief work. The memorandum included all the details about the loss of human life, property, infrastructure and damage to crops. Responding to this, a committee headed by the Union Home Secretary had cleared Rs 3,100 crore. The Rs 600 crore that was announced as an advance earlier was included in this amount.
In his statement, Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the total amount of money that has been collected by the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) for the flood relief activities as of November 27 amounted to Rs 2,683.18 crore. He said that this also includes the amount collected through the salary challenge.
The Kerala Chief Minister on Thursday sent a letter to Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh requesting him to call for an urgent high-level meeting to provide financial assistance to Kerala, which is recovering from the floods in August.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has also submitted a bill to the state government for the rescue and relief services provided by them during the disaster. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a statement on Thursday had announced that the state government has been billed an amount of Rs 290.74 crore by the Centre for their services of providing the food grains as well as for the services of the Air Force during the floods.
Following the floods, a controversy had risen when the Centre had announced that it will not accept the United Arab Emirates (UAE) offer to provide Rs 700 crores for the relief and rehabilitation of Kerala. The Central Government had said that India will not take any financial assistance from foreign countries with regard to its disaster aid policy which was formed in 2004.