THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the restoration of Section 13 of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, that empowers the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to recommend banks to waive or write off loans or grant fresh loans to persons affected by disasters of severe magnitude.
The chief minister intervened in the matter a day after the Centre informed the Kerala High Court that the section has been removed.
The Centre had also informed that it was unable to write off the loans of the July 2024 Wayanad landslide victims owing to the repeal of the Section 13 from the Act.
“The section enables providing much needed financial relief to the victims of the disaster, who face unexpected crisis and will have to rebuild their lives after incurring heavy losses,” the CM wrote in his letter to Modi.
Pinarayi also pointed out that the provision (Section 13) in the Disaster Management Act is included with humanitarian intent and deleting it amounts to putting victims to added hardship.