SHILLONG:Congress MLA and Opposition leader Mukul Sangma said the state government should utilize the funds available with it under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to provide relief to flood victims.
Raising a supplementary query at the question hour in the state Assembly on Monday, Sangma asked about the total amount of fund available with the government under the SDRF.
To this query, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Kyrmen Shylla said Rs 46 crore was still available.
Having heard that more funds are sought from the Union government to release funds for flood victims, Sangma asked about the availability of fund under the SDRF.
Earlier, Congress MLA H.M. Shangpliang questionedthe delay in providing relief to flood victims,. In response, Shylla said that a memorandum had been submitted to the center seeking funds amounting to Rs 116.41 crores and the victims would get relief after the Central government released the fund.
However, Shangpliang said that last year’s victims have not received any relief yet.
Mukul said that government of India would not release funds when there was plenty of fund available with the state government.
He observed that the House should not be misled and said the matter should be reviewed to which Shylla assured that it would be done so.
Shylla answered queries on Monday regarding the extent of damages caused to household, cattle and cultivation due to the flood.
Congress MLA Himalaya Shangpliang termed the report of Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Kyrmen Shylla as incomplete and wrong.
He said that South Garo Hills could not just have one house damage and expressed concern over the delay in getting the report for East Garo Hills even two months after the flood.
Echoing Shangpliang, MLA of Chokpot (in South Garo Hills), Lazarus Sangma said more than 300 houses had been damaged.
He asked as to how the report was collected, to which Shylla replied that the report was taken from Deputy Commissioners of different districts.
Shangpliang went on to say that the collection of report is faulty and said the minister should have had the correct report with him . He expected that at the end of the session, full details would be made available.