Cabinet demands Centre to expedite release of urgent disaster response funds for Wayanad

Cabinet evokes provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to acquire land in Nedumbala and Elstone estates in Wayanad for the State’s model townships to rehabilitate the disaster-hit population

The Cabinet has demanded the Union government to expedite the release of urgent assistance for the landslide-ravaged Wayanad district. 

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Thursday that the government had requested ₹219 crore in addition to the Centre’s routine disaster response fund allocation. 

He said the Union government’s Public Information Bureau (PIB) announced the release of ₹145.6 crore and another ₹145.6 crore advance. However, Mr. Vijayan said the allocations were the Centre’s mandatory contributions to the fund and not the urgent assistance sought by the government. 

Mr. Vijayan said the Cabinet evoked the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to acquire land in Nedumbala and Elstone estates in Wayanad for the State’s model townships to rehabilitate the disaster-hit population. 

In first phase

He said the government would rehabilitate families who lost their land and dwellings in the scheme’s first phase. In the second phase, the government would allocate new homes to those families whose houses and properties were rendered unlivable and unarable by the disaster. 

The District Collector, Wayanad, will publish the draft list of the beneficiaries in two phases and the Revenue department will finalise it. 

The government has released an ex gratia payment of ₹10 lakhs to six children orphaned by the disaster and ₹5 lakh as immediate relief to eight children who lost one of their parents to the disaster. 

The Cabinet also decided to give government employment commensurate to academic qualification to Shruthi, who lost her entire family in the disaster. Her fiance had tragically died in a vehicle accident later.  

Published - October 03, 2024 06:50 pm IST