SHILLONG: Opposition Leader and Congress MLA Mukul Sangma said the state government should utilise the funds available with it under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to provide relief to flood victims.
Raising a supplementary query during the question hour in the Assembly on Monday, Mukul asked about the total fund available with the government under the SDRF.
In response, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Kyrmen Shylla said Rs 46 crore is still available.
On reports that more funds have been sought from the union government for flood victims, Mukul asked about the availability under the SDRF.
Earlier, Congress MLA H.M. Shangpliang questioned the delay in providing relief to flood victims.
However Shylla said that a memorandum has been submitted to the Centre seeking Rs 116.41 crore and the victims will get relief after the fund is released.
Shangpliang pointed out that last year’s victims have not received any relief yet.
Mukul said that the Centre will not release funds when there are plenty of funds available with the state government. He observed that the House should not be misled and added that the matter should be reviewed. Shylla assured that it will be done.
Shylla also answered queries regarding the extent of damage caused to households, cattle and cultivation.
Shangpliang termed the report of Shylla as incomplete and wrong.
He said South Garo Hills cannot have only one house affected and expressed concern over the delay in getting the report for East Garo Hills even after two months.
Echoing Shangpliang, MLA of Chokpot, South Garo Hills Lazarus Sangma said more than 300 houses were damaged. He wanted to know as to how the report was collected.
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 added that the minister should have the correct report. He expected that at the end of the session, full details will be made available.
In reply, Shylla said the damage caused to cultivation due to recent floods in East Garo Hills is 20.9 ha while the reports of households affected, number of houses damaged and cattle are awaited.
In West Garo Hills, there were 27585 households affected and in Demdema block there were 104 households.
Reports from other blocks are awaited while the number of cattle affected is 27,539 and 3505 ha of cultivable land was also damaged.
In South Garo Hills, one household and one house were damaged. Report is awaited regarding damage to cultivation.
In South West Garo Hills, households affected are 6072 and 161 houses were damaged.
The loss of cattle is 7 and cultivation affected is 909 ha.
In North Garo Hills, four houses were damaged.
In East Khasi Hills, households affected were 1703.
In Ri-Bhoi district, there was no report of any damage except loss after cultivable 67.4 ha was inundated.
In South West Khasi Hills, households and cattle affected were 4 and 5 respectively.
In East Jaintia Hills, cultivation could not be carried out in 8.5 ha and in West Jaintia Hills, loss of cattle is 7.
