The Centre on Friday decided to provide additional assistance of Rs 5,751.27 crore to eight states who faced disasters such as landslides, floods, drought and cyclone during 2019.
The decision was taken in a High Level Committee (HLC) underthe chairmanship of Home Minister Amit Shah.
The committee approved additional Central assistance underNational Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to Bihar, Kerala, Nagaland, Odisha,Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Karnataka. These states were affectedby floods, landslides, cyclone and drought during 2019.
“The HLC approved additional Central assistance of Rs5751.27 crore to eight States from NDRF subject to the adjustment of 50 per centof balances available in the SDRF account as on April 1 of the financial year,”a Home Ministry statement said.
Of the Rs 5,751.27 crore, a total of Rs 953.17 crore hasbeen allocated to Bihar (of this Rs. 400 crore already released “on accountbasis”), Rs 460.77 crore to Kerala, Rs 177.37 crore to Nagaland, Rs 179.64crore to Odisha, Rs 1,758.18 crore to Maharashtra, Rs 1,119.98 crore toRajasthan, Rs 1,090.68 crore to West Bengal for floods, landslides, cyclone,drought (kharif) during 2019 and Rs 11.48 crore to Karnataka towards additionalassistance under Animal Husbandry sector for drought (rabi) of 2018-19.During the 2019-20, to date, the Centralgovernment has already released Rs 10,937.62 crore to 29 states, includingerstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, as Central share from State DisasterResponse Fund (SDRF) and additional assistance of Rs 14,108.58 crore to statesunder NDRF.