A financial package of Rs 7,346 crore was approved for the disaster affected Uttarakhand State in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Uttarakhand (CCU) chaired by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence on Monday.
On the request of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, the committee agreed to expenditure on other districts of Uttarakhand apart from the five disaster affected districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar.
An untied fund of Rs100 crore from the Prime Minister's fund will also be provided for the compensation being paid by the State government though it is not included in the guidelines of the National Disaster Response Force.
The Rs7,346 crore financial package approved for Uttarakhand by the CCU will comprise Rs1,885 crore through central sponsored schemes, Rs1,200 crore through NDRF, Rs3,161 through externally aided schemes and Rs1,100 crore through special plan
assistance.
A special fund of Rs100 crore was also approved for providing compensation for damaged/destroyed commercial buildings, compensation at increased rates for the mules lost and other related compensations.
After the meeting, the CM Vijay Bahuguna said that the CCU had accepted the State's demand for relaxation in some standards for various central schemes in all districts of the State.
Bahuguna informed that the State had also demanded that compensation be facilitated for the damage to commercial establishments on the Char Dham and Kailash Mansarovar Yatra routes.
These establishments were the main source of income for the locals in these regions and compensation should be paid for the damage to these, he said. Similarly, the State demanded Rs50,000 compensation per mule which is being paid by the State Government.
In stead of counting a home as a unit, the State demanded compensation on the basis of family unit.
The CCU approved a Rs100 crore special fund to meet these three demands, added
the CM.
Talking to the media informally after the meeting, Bahuguna said that with 4,025 persons missing/dead in the June disaster, the State Government had issued 3,180 death certificates.
Each of the bereaved family has been provided Rsfive lakh per person missing/dead (Uttarakhand native) and Rs3.5 lakh per person missing/dead from outside Uttarakhand.
The remaining bereaved families will be provided the death certificates and monetary assistance by December 15, added the CM.
He further informed that financial assistance of Rs72.89 crore had been distributed for 16,016 damaged homes while Rs11 crore had been distributed in total to 22,086 disaster affected families to help them buy clothes, utensils and other items for domestic use.
The State chief secretary Subhash Kumar and additional chief secretary Rakesh Sharma were also present in the meeting along with the CM.