The Centre on Friday approved additional Rs 5,751.27 crore as aid to eight states hit by floods, landslides, cyclone and drought last year, the home ministry said.
The eight states which will get the financial assistance are: Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Karnataka.
A high-level committee under the Chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah approved Rs 5,751.27 crore as additional central assistance to the eight states for floods, landslides, cyclone 'Bulbul', drought during 2019; and Karnataka for drought (rabi) of 2018-19, the statement said.
According to reports, the additional assistance from the centre has been approved under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). A high level committee headed by Home Minister Amit Shah approved the relief package.
The committee approved the central assistance on the condition that 50% of balances available in the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) account is adjusted as on April 1 of the financial year. This is Rs 953.17 crore to Bihar (of this Rs 400 crore already released), Rs 460.77 crore to Kerala, Rs 177.37 crore to Nagaland, Rs 179.64 crore to Odisha, Rs 1,758.18 crore to Maharashtra, Rs 1,119.98 crore to Rajasthan, Rs 1,090.68 crore to West Bengal for flood, landslides, cyclone, drought (kharif) during 2019 and Rs 11.48 crore to Karnataka towards additional assistance under animal husbandry sector for drought (rabi) of 2018-19, according to a Deccan Herald report.
In 2019-20, the Centre has given relief of Rs 10,937.62 crore to 29 states and an additional relief of Rs 14, 108.58 crore to 8 states.
Earlier, Kerala, which had witnessed consecutive floods in 2018 and 2019, had been excluded by the Centre in the list of seven states which received Rs 5,908 crore from the National Disaster Relief Fund. These states included Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tripura, Assam, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Prior to this, the Centre had also provided interim financial aid of Rs 3,200 crore to four states, which again did not include Kerala. The states which received this aid were Karnataka Rs 1200 crore, Madhya Pradesh Rs 1000 crore, Maharashtra Rs 600 crore and Bihar Rs 400 crore.
(With inputs from PTI)