SHILLONG, March 12: The Opposition Congress on Friday raised concern over the delay in releasing the financial assistance to the victims of various incidents of natural calamities, especially fire incidents.
Moving a cut motion in the Assembly today, Congress MLA from Umroi, George B Lyngdoh, said many households in his constituency have suffered because of fire incidents.
“Despite the Minister’s assurance, most of their claims have not been cleared from 2017 onwards,” he said, asking the minister concerned to clarify the reasons for not clearing the fiscal assistance.
Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma, agreed and rued the delay in providing prompt aid from the state disaster relief funds to many families affected by natural calamities. He sought the data on pending cases and a timeframe for providing financial assistance to the victims according to government guidelines.
“As per laid-down guidelines, the fund under Disaster Management cannot be utilised for any other purpose. We will not get more funds from the National Disaster Relief Fund unless we clear the financial assistance of all the pending cases promptly,” Sangma said.
Opposition Chief Whip, PT Sawkmie, said the delay in receiving aid has made the victims of natural calamities suffer.
He cited the 2019 Mawlai fire incident in which 12 shops were gutted. “It has been almost two years and none of the shop owners have received any assistance from the government. I tried to provide some assistance through the MLA scheme,” he said.
The Mawlai Congress legislator also said that there are many families and farmers from his constituency who have been victims of natural calamities during the past many years.
“I had anticipated that all the deputy commissioners of the districts will be allocated separate funds for disaster management,” he said.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Kyrmen Shylla, said in his reply that the department is providing assistance to the affected families after a scrutiny of the assessment report made at the site.
“We release the funds to the beneficiaries concerned according to the availability of funds. I do not have the details on the number of pending cases where the financial assistance is yet to be provided to such victims,” he said.
The Minister said Rs 20 lakh was released to the deputy commissioners as an advance fund for providing immediate relief. He further said that Rs 48,78,22,236 from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) was released to various districts between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020.
Of the total amount released, East Khasi Hills received Rs. 2,66,96,552, West Khasi Hills Rs 3,41,85,872, Ri Bhoi Rs 1,52,30,577, South West Khasi Hills Rs 63,90,800, East Jaintia Hills Rs 75,60,200, West Jaintia Hills Rs 1,96,98,800, East Garo Hills Rs 50,48,571, West Garo Hills Rs 30,99,99,279, South Garo Hills Rs 2,70,69,525, South West Garo Hills Rs 49,48,900 and North Garo Hills Rs 1,92,28,200.
Shylla also said East Khasi Hills district received Rs 8,29,04,726 from the SDRF fund released during 2020-21. On the other hand, West Khasi Hills received Rs 1,77,39,200, Ri Bhoi Rs 4,97,77,219, South West Khasi Hills Rs 1,77,21,500, East Jaintia Hills Rs 1,64,88,046, West Jaintia Hills Rs 3,03,66,116, East Garo Hills Rs 2,47,78,990, West Garo Hills Rs 48,32,63,957, South Garo Hills Rs 3,42,41,800, South West Garo Hills Rs 6,75,31,882 and North Garo Hills Rs 7,31,77,783.