Currency ban turns heat on victims of natural calamities

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 4

While the common man is grappling with the effects of demonetisation, victims of natural calamities have become the worst-sufferers.

There is no provision for relaxation in RBI guidelines even for distributing immediate relief to the sufferers of natural calamities and it is like “rubbing salt into wounds” of the tormented victims.

As many as 92 members of 23 families are homeless at Gahar village in Kullu district. On December 2, their houses were destroyed in a fire, but the state government had a hard time paying the relief as the bank refused to release the payment of Rs 5 lakh and officials expressed helplessness due to the RBI instructions restricting the withdrawal limit to Rs 24,000 per week.

The damage was assessed to be Rs 1.75 crore by the revenue authorities, but the immediate relief of Rs 5 lakh was not released by the manager of Punjab National Bank (Dhalpur-Kullu branch) even after the Kullu SDM sent a letter to him explaining the compelling circumstances, but the manager insisted that the maximum withdrawal limit fixed by RBI was Rs 24,000.

Special secretary, Disaster Management, DD Sharma said as the funds were squeezed, the administration had a tough time providing relief to the victims, particularly food, water, clothing and blankets. They were not even provided a temporary shelter at night when the minimum temperature is below 5.0 degrees Celsius.

However, the district administration borrowed money from local shopkeepers and also raised the money through contributions to provide immediate relief of Rs 5 lakh to the victims, he added.