Centre slammed for insufficient aid

Thiruvananthapuram: Governor P. Sathasivam’s address to the Assembly on Friday directed the state government’s ire at the centre for not providing enough funds to rebuild the state in the aftermath of floods.

He expressed the government’s gratitude to all who helped in the relief operations, including hundreds of fishermen who went out with their boats and saved over 65,000 lives.

The governor requested the central government to enhance the state's borrowing limit. 

“The actual sum required for rebuilding and restoration of physical infrastructure alone is Rs 15,882 crore, of which my government proposes to raise Rs 7,000 crore from World Bank and ADB. The centre must enhance the state's borrowing limit to mobilise additional resources for rebuilding Kerala. We are still awaiting a favourable response from it in this regard,” Mr Sathasivam said.

The Post-Disaster Nee-ds Assessment (PDNA) was jointly carried out by the United Nations organisations, World Bank, ADB and other international agencies. The PDNA report assessed a total loss of Rs 26,7l8 crore across various sectors and recovery needs were estimated at Rs 31,000 crore. Out of Rs 31,000 core, only Rs 5,000 crore would be available from the national disaster relief funds, he said.

The state government has laid out a detailed strategy to reconstruct the fully damaged houses. It was decided to pool in resources from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) to provide Rs 4 lakh each for the reconstruction of such houses, he said.

He also praised the Army, Navy, Air Force, NDRF, CRPF, ITBP, BSF and Coast Guard, Kerala Police, Kerala Fire Force, SDRF, other state government agencies, Malayali diaspora living across the world, schoolchildren, ordinary people, celebrities and differently-abled, corporate companies, social and community organisations and government employees for their assistance to the flood-affected people.