With the floods hitting the state consecutively for two years, Kerala had immense loss and is still trying to rise up. However, the central government’s stand does not come as a surprise. A fund of Rs.5906 Cr has allotted by the central government to seven states which does not have Kerala.
The calamity fund has been transferred from the National Disaster Relief Fund.
The High Level Committee chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah has chosen seven states, including four BJP-ruled ones: Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tripura and Assam. The others are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Kerala has not yet received a response from the Centre after repeated pleas for funds. HLC said it approved additional central assistance of Rs. 5908.56 crore to seven States from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) – Rs 616.63 crore to Assam, Rs 284.93 crore to Himachal Pradesh, Rs 1869.85 crore to Karnataka, Rs 1749.73 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs 956.93 crore to Maharashtra, Rs 63.32 to Tripura and Rs 367.17 crore to Uttar Pradesh for floods/ landslides/cloudburst during south west monsoon 2019.
The decision, excluding Kerala from the list of states receiving calamity-relief funds, has come under severe criticism from the state government. Kerala’s Finance Minister Thomas Isaac has called the decision unfortunate.
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