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Vajpayee promises Rs 2 billion for UP flood victims

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday announced several schemes totalling Rs 3 billion for the flood-affected areas of Uttar Pradesh, and said the country would form a joint strategy with Nepal to build bunds (dikes) on all 'dangerous' trans-border rivers.

The prime minister described the havoc wreaked by the flooded rivers as a "laghu pralaya'' (small catastrophe).

The floods affected 55 of the total 83 districts in the state. Nearly 1,280 people lost their lives.

The prime minister said he took up the bunds programme with his Nepal counterpart at the recently-concluded NAM summit in Durban.

Vajpayee, along with UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and Governor Suraj Bhan, undertook an aerial survey of several affected districts including Gorkahpur, Deoria, Santkabir Nagar, Deoria, Siddharthanagar, Basti, Maharaj Nagar and Kushinagar.

Brushing aside his security cover, Vajpayee mingled with the flood victims. He assured them that money would not come in the way of relief.

Soon after his arrival at the Gorkahpur airport, Vajpayee was given an audio visual account of the flood havoc. Chief Secretary Yogendra Narain sought an immediate assistance of Rs 4.9 billion.

The prime minister said the first and second quarterly instalments from the Centre's calamity relief fund, totalling Rs 520 million, has already been released to the state. In addition, an advance on the third and fourth instalments has also been given.

He noted that the state government has not yet made any memorandum for assistance to the Centre. He assured that as soon as such a memorandum was received, the Centre would send teams to assess damages.

Vajpayee was informed that the floods affected 240,000 hectares of land in the state, marooning 15,340 villages. Of this, nearly 140,000 hectares were agricultural land.

He said the state government should make use of the regular schemes of the agricultural department for providing relief to farmers. For the current year, the state has been allocated Rs 780 million under this scheme. Plus, there was an unspent balance of Rs 470 million -- thus, the total availability under the scheme is Rs 1.25 billion. The state would have more funds as soon as it runs through half of this, the prime minister added.

Vajpayee said as a large number of houses are reported to have been damaged, housing assistance was a top priority. The Housing and Urban Development Corporation has allocated about Rs 350 million for the economically weak and low-income categories.

Hudco will also assist the state government in opening building centres in the affected areas at its own cost (up to Rs 2.5 million) for transfer of appropriate technology to combat the floods and also to render technical assistance for repairing houses.

He said after recent discussions with the state government, Hudco has finalised a special package for the current year. This package, broadly amounting to Rs 6.5 million for housing and infrastructure, would be in addition to the loans and schemes identified above.

For towns with a population of below 500,000, funds are being provided for integrated development.

Vajpayee said there would be an immediate need for employment generation programme in the affected areas, particularly in the face of crop loss.

Under the Indira Awas Yojana, which provides free housing in rural areas, allocations over and above the normal quantum would be provided to rebuild houses. The prime minister asked the ministry of rural areas and employment to release Rs 2 billion under their various programmes, waiving the requirement of submission of utilisation certificates. This would enable the state to immediately take up these programmes on a large-scale in affected areas.

UNI

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