Times of
India: Nagpur: Tuesday, January 14,
2014.
Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had rushed to
Vidarbha in the midst of the monsoon session of state legislature to visit
flood-hit areas. After returning to Mumbai, he announced a Rs 1,835 crore relief package for affected persons.
However, as usual, the state government is yet to
release the full amount of the package. It has asked district collectors to
draw the amount from local treasury. So, for a variety of reasons, large number
of rain-hit people are yet to get the relief money.
In Nagpur division, over 70,000 persons, whose houses had
collapsed or were very badly damaged, are still waiting for money from the
government to build new houses. They have repaired their houses to some extent
using their own money or by borrowing from others. However, proper repair works
can only be done after they get government money. In fact, in many cases even
this money would be inadequate.
Information collected under Right to Information
(RTI) Act by activist Abhay Kolarkar says that as of December 31, 2013, some 14,211 families and 80,850 homeless persons were yet to get the relief. Sources in divisional
commissionerate said that while the exact numbers were not known, the figure
has come down to 70,000.
The RTI data shows that on December 31, 7,598 homeless families were yet to get relief in Nagpur district. Collector
Saurabh Rao said that all affected persons in rural areas have been given
relief.
"However, there are some people within municipal limits who have not got it
yet. The reason is that in many cases the corporators did the panchnamas
themselves and submitted them to the patwaris. But only revenue department
staffers can do panchnamas. A lot of corporators, especially Parinay Fuke, are
pressurizing our department to release money on the basis of their reports, but
this is not possible," he said.
Rao assured that the distribution of relief would
start from February 1.
"I have ordered our staffers to undertake the
survey themselves. They should check Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) records
and talk to neighbours of affected persons to assess the damage," he told
TOI.
A large number of farmers, who lost their crops
and farms in the rains too are awaiting relief. Farm experts had also said that
the relief amount was too less to be of real help. But even this money is not
coming.
Even though the package was announced on August 2, as on December 12
only a little over one lakh farmers out of the total 8.10 lakh affected farmers had got the money. A commissionerate official claimed
that the figure of those who have received the money has now crossed three lakh
and the pace of works was increasing.