Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna met Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday. During meeting the CM requested the Finance Minister to provide relief to local tourism industry in Service Tax considering the circumstances prevailing after the disaster.
He also appealed to him to organise big events in the State so that people would come to know that there is no such threat in Mussoorie, Nainital and other parts of the state. He has also requested Chidambaram to consider release of extra money for the repair and reconstruction of various projects sanctioned by planning commission; which have already been financed by the Union Government earlier but got damaged in calamity.
He also discussed the issuance of certificates for those missing in the aftermath of the flash floods of June in the hill state. CM Bahuguna said after the meeting that he asked Chidambaram to have the certificates issued and handed over to the Uttarakhand Government.
The CM pleaded that, like the lIC, the nationalised banks too could be asked to bring some flexibility in norms for those who had gone missing after the recent calamity. For this, he urged the Union Finance Minister to draw the attention of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and the RBI to the problem.
Guidelines should be given to nationalized banks to make it possible for the families of missing persons to operate the bank accounts. There were many cases in which the sole bread-earner of the family had gone missing after the disaster and the survivors were dependent entirely on their accounts and savings.
“For this, we already had a discussion with the Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and now on Friday I met the Finance Minister. I hope that the Union Finance Ministry would soon a take a decision on whether the Uttarakhand Government or Government of parent state of missing person will be issuing the certificates,” said Bahuguna while also appealing that service tax should be waived off till March 31 to provide relief to the tourism industry.
“The tourism industry has been badly hit and there is also a service tax which applies on all the hotels and restaurants. So, we have requested them to waive off the service tax till March 31 with an aim to provide relief to the tourism industry,” he said.
Earlier last month, Bahuguna had refused to declare 5,748 people missing in the mid-June disaster as dead, saying the mission to find them will not be given up. The Indian Armed Forces made an invaluable contribution in the search and rescue operations in Uttarakhand, which was devastated by cloudbursts and floods in June 16-17. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has already announced Rs 1,000 crore for disaster relief measures in the flood-devastated parts of the state. Various central ministries have also announced additional financial assistance for Uttarakhand.
He appraised that state had already begun distributing monetary relief to next of kin of those who gone missing in month of June following natural calamity. However, the families needed further relief in the form of access to bank accounts.