THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government is proceeding with the rehabilitation of landslide victims in Wayanad, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The chief secretary has been assigned to discuss the different aspects of rehabilitation with disaster response experts and people’s representatives from the affected areas, he told media persons here on Tuesday. The final plan will be formulated after obtaining the opinion of all stakeholders, said the CM.
Initially, there were 729 families in rehabilitation camps. Except for 219 families, the rest of them moved to rented houses or relatives’ homes.
The government will give monthly rent to all these families. The government has repaired 75 government quarters where 83 families will be rehabilitated. The government has identified 177 houses where victims can be rehabilitated.
Of them, 123 are ready to be occupied. As many as 105 houses have already been sanctioned to victims and 22 families have started living there. The CM said some of the victims have sought more time to move out of the rehabilitation camps.
So far 179 dead bodies have been identified. As many as 17 families were totally wiped away in the disaster. They comprised 65 members. Reports say that 119 persons are still missing.
The government could not find the next of kin of five persons. Samples have been sent for DNA tests in such cases.
Relatives of 59 deceased received Rs 4 lakh from the State Disaster Response Fund and Rs 2 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. An immediate assistance of Rs 10,000 was given to 691 families. Additionally, 172 families were given Rs 10,000 as funeral expenses.
The CM said the support of banks was inevitable to provide livelihood to the affected families. Agriculture was the source of income for the majority. Most of them had taken loans for farming, education and housing. “But they have lost their houses and farmlands. A large number of people have become lonely. The government, in this context, asked the State Level Bankers Committee meeting to write off the loans of landslide victims,” he said.
Pinarayi said the banks would propose writing off the loans during their director board meetings. The SLBC directed banks to repay the EMI collected from the victims after July 30.
The SLBC meeting decided to restructure all agri and non-agri loans of people in the affected areas.
New loans will be sanctioned on liberal terms. Banks have also agreed to provide Rs 25, 000 consumption loans to victims without obtaining security.
The financial assistance given by the governments will not be collected by banks against pending dues. The repayment period will be 30 months. All recovery steps will be stopped in the area.
