Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the recent floods which devastated the districts of Chennai, Kanchipuram, Cuddalore and Tiruvallur as a national calamity. She has also submitted a list of requirements to the Centre to adequately compensate those who lost everything in the “catastrophic destruction”.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, excerpts of which were released to the media, Jayalalithaa said the Tamil Nadu Government would soon submit a supplementary memorandum on the extent of damages in the most recent round of floods. In an earlier memorandum, the Tamil Nadu Government had requested the Centre to release Rs 2,000 crore immediately to “sustain” the rescue and relief operations and another Rs 8,481 crore for rehabilitation works. Prime Minister Modi, during his visit to Chennai last week, had announced an additional assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to the flood ravaged Tamil Nadu.
In her letter on Wednesday, Jayalalithaa described the flood as an unprecedented, catastrophic and cataclysmic event which caused extensive destruction and damage to infrastructure as well as private properties of thousands of families. “Many households have lost all their personal effects and domestic durable assets, which are very valuable and cannot be adequately compensated through the existing structure of relief payments. Many of these households are in the low and middle income groups whose life savings have been wiped out by these unprecedented floods,” said Jayalalithaa in her letter.
She asked the Prime Minister to direct the insurance companies to take up the survey and settlement of the insurance claims of those who lost valuables on a campaign mode, following a summary procedure, and with a liberal application of the norms so that such households could receive insurance payments early which would enable them to restart their normal lives.
The Chief Minister also asked the Prime Minister to instruct the banks to provide limited moratorium on repayment of loans for those who had availed bank loans to finance their home, vehicles and other household effects, and also make soft loans available to people who lost their personal belongings.
“I consider that a liberal set of measures on the lines suggested by me undertaken by insurance companies and banks would enable the flood affected families to rebuild their lives,” Jayalalithaa said
in the letter.