Himachal Pradesh CM meets disaster-hit Sarkaghat families

Mandi, August 17

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu visited disaster-hit Matehdi, Baldwara, Maseran and Jukain villages in the Sarkaghat Assembly segment of Mandi district today. He interacted with villagers, who had suffered losses due to heavy rain, and assured them of all help from the government.

Sukhu announced an immediate financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh each to the affected families for refurbishing their partially damaged houses. He also met 23 families of Gehra gram panchayat, who had suffered heavy losses, and promised them a financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh each from the government.

He directed the district administration to provide the best facilities to them at the relief camps where they had been accommodated.

Sukhu, while interacting with mediapersons at Sarkaghat, said that heavy rain and landslides had caused massive devastation across the state. He added that the state had suffered an estimated loss of Rs 10,000 crore due to the disaster.

The Chief Minister said that the affected people would receive higher compensation and financial support for rebuilding their houses. The relief manual would be amended to help farmers, whose crops had been damaged, he added.

He said, “The Union Government is still to provide the first installment of interim relief to Himachal. A relief amount of Rs 315 crore was pending with the Centre for the past few years due to audit objections and only Rs 180 crore of it had been released. Under the SDRF, the state has received Rs 360 crore in two installments. This amount is given to all states. No separate financial help has been released to the state.”