The Uttarakhand Cabinet on Monday took various important decisions to provide relief to the disaster-affected people and facilitate reconstruction and rehabilitation in the affected areas of the State.
In a landmark decision, the Government ordered a ban on all constructions along the riverbanks in Uttarakhand. This is one of the measures announced by Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna to rebuild Uttarakhand. He said a new agency would come up for this.
“An Uttarakhand Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority chaired by the Chief Minister will be established to decide planning and development of the State,” Bahuguna told reporters at a Press conference.
“No permission will be given for construction along riverbanks,” he said. Bahuguna said the decision was taken by the State Cabinet considering the massive damage caused by the calamity in different areas across the State. “The authority will consist of experts from different fields,” he said. The Cabinet also decided to revise the norms for relief and rehabilitation in the wake of the colossal tragedy by widening the ambit of beneficiaries ranging from small kiosks to ‘dhabas’ to big hotels, Bahuguna said.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who also addressed the conference, described it as a “progressive and significant step which will inspire confidence in people”. The authority will ensure transparency in the utilisation of large funds to be received by the State Government from the Centre and other sources in development of the affected areas.
Apart from a package of Rs 1,000 crore announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for reconstruction and rebuilding efforts, Rs 2,500 to 3,000 crore more is expected from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for the purpose, Ramesh said. In view of the present circumstances, it has been decided to give Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh to small kiosks and ‘dhabas’ damaged in the deluge and Rs 2 lakhs to hotels completely demolished, the CM said.
In case of damages worth Rs 2 lakh to 10 lakh to commercial establishments, 30 per cent of the damage will be compensated, while 20 per cent of the total losses will be reimbursed in case of damages worth Rs 10 to 20 lakh and 10 per cent for losses totalling over Rs 20 lakh, he said.
Hotels, guest houses and commercial establishments along the banks of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi, the tributaries of the Ganga in Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi districts suffered extensive damage in the recent calamity.
Other important decisions taken by the Cabinet included the State taking full responsibility of the children orphaned in the disaster and supplying, free of cost 15 kgs each of rice and flour, 5 kgs of pulses, 3 kgs of sugar, one liter each of refined and mustard oil, salt and spices and 10 liters of kerosene to each affected family inhabiting areas that are totally cut off for one month.
The transportation cost on the above items will be decided by the District Magistrates. For families having five members, one unit of the above mentioned relief set will be provided and where the number of people of families exceeds five, two units shall be provided.
Students up to intermediate standard will be given a one-time compensation of Rs 500 each while students of polytechnic and degree colleges will get an amount of Rs 1000 as one-time compensation, Bahuguna announced.
All those farmers in whose fields sand, earth and river bed material has been deposited by flood waters, will be given three months time to take such material out and sell it.
However, if they use mechanical devices to take the material out, they will have to take permission from the District Magistrate. Keeping in view the disaster, the electricity dues and water tax for the disaster affected families have been waived from June 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014.
Also, the loans taken by disaster affected families from the Uttarakhand State Cooperative Bank and District Cooperative banks will be kept in abeyance for one year. likewise, on the loans taken by affected families from nationalised banks, the Centre would be requested to suspend the recovery of these loans for a year. This decision will be in effect for the Financial Year 2013-14.
It was decided that the relief amount for sugarcane damaged will be 50 per cent more than the compensation/relief for unseasonal crops.Bahuguna, however, refused speculate on the casualty figures in the calamity, saying bodies are yet to be extricated from the huge quantity of debris lying in affected areas and the whereabouts of over 3,000 persons reported missing after the tragedy are yet to be ascertained.
“In a situation like this, being the Chief Minister I would prefer not to quantify a figure. Police officials who have visited the affected areas say 500-600 bodies are visible, many may be lying underneath heaps of debris and many reported missing are yet to be found,” Bahuguna told reporters when they asked Congress in-charge of Uttarakhand Ambika Soni to clear the air over conflicting casualty figures doing the rounds.