The Union government has approved additional assistance of more than Rs 3,000 crore to six states this year to cover damages caused by natural disasters, a Home Ministry statement said Thursday. Gujarat was granted Rs 1,133.35 crore for Cyclone Tauktae and West Bengal received Rs 586.59 crore for Cyclone ‘Yaas’. Similarly, for disasters such as floods and landslides during the monsoon, Assam was granted Rs 51.53 crore, Karnataka was given Rs. 504.06 crore, Madhya Pradesh got Rs 600.50 crore and Uttarakhand Rs 187.18 crore. “The High Level Committee (HLC), under the Chairmanship of the Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, has approved additional Central assistance under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), to six States, which were affected by floods, landslides and cyclones during 2021,” said the statement. In all, the additional assistance comes to Rs 3,063.21 crore. This assistance is over and above the funds released by the Centre to states in the State Disaster Response Fund. During this fiscal, the Centre released Rs 17,747.20 crore to 28 states in their SDRF, the Home Ministry said. “Further Rs. 3,543.54 crore has been released to 7 States from NDRF,” the statement said. According to Home Ministry data presented in Parliament, 1,989 people died in national disasters in 2020-21. As many as 11,85,137 houses were damaged and 66.67 lakh hectares of crops were destroyed. According to the ministry, Rs 1,000 crore was released in advance from NDRF to Gujarat on May 20 and Rs 300 crore to West Bengal on May 29 in the aftermath of Cyclone ‘Taukte’ and ‘Yaas’. “During the year 2021-22, the Central Government had deputed 22 Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) immediately after natural calamities, without waiting for the receipt of a Memorandum from the affected State Governments,” the MHA said.
