HYDERABAD: Two and half months after floods hit five districts in the State, the Government has still not announced any plans on spending the Rs 200 crore in donations that poured into the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF).
The donors have preferred to forward their contributions to the CMRF and have largely avoided private organisations, except for a few newspapers and TV channels.
Reliance Industries accounted for the largest sum -- Rs 11 crore -- while Vizag Steel and a few other companies stood second by donating Rs 5 crore each. Adding the donations collected by the newspapers and TV channels to the Rs 200 crore in the CMRF, the figure is likely to reach Rs 230 crore to Rs 240 crore by the end of the year.
The amount is considerably larger than that mobilised during similar calamities in the past and would enable the Government to take up comprehensive programmes for all the flood victims.
It is estimated that about 20 lakh people in Kurnool, Mahaboobnagar, Nalgonda, Krishna and Guntur districts were affected by the flash floods between Septemer 2 and 4. If the government were to distribute cash equally among the affected, each person would get at least Rs 1,000.
The Government had announced that it would build about 1 lakh houses and if the CMRF fund were to be devoted to this programme, the each unit would get around Rs 20,000 by way of donation.
When asked about the plans regarding the spending of the money, officials of the Revenue Department said they had not received any instructions from the Chief Minister’s Office. They said that unless the chief minister took a decision on the matter, they would not be able to do anything.