Thousands of flood victims still awaiting their relief money
1 Feb, 2014After visiting the flood-hit areas in Vidarbha region during monsoon session of state legislature last year, the Maharashtra Chief Minister had announced a Rs. 1,835 crore relief package for the flood-affected population of the state.
In this regard, an application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details about the relief money that has been disbursed to the affected persons. The reply to the application suggests that complete amount of the package is still to be released by the government and the district collectors have been asked to draw the amount from local treasury. The data provided in the reply shows that around 14,200 families and 80,850 homeless persons had not received their share of relief money till December 31, 2013. In Nagpur district alone, 7,598 homeless families were yet to get relief. Other sources indicated that the number of persons still to get relief money has decreased to around 70,000.
A huge number of flood-affected farmers are also awaiting relief for their ruined crops. Out of total 8.1 lakh affected farmers, only 1 lakh had received the relief money as of December 12, 2013.