Grant of compensation for flood-damaged houses; 17 teams of ministers & officers to verify DCs' lists

Guwahati: For the first time in perennially flood-hit Assam, ministers, senior IAS officers and their subordinate officers will make field inspections of houses damaged fully or partially due to floods in order to cross-verify the reported damage.

According to guidelines of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), owners are entitled to a rehabilitation grant (RG) if their respective houses are damaged due to floods or other disasters. However, only a miniscule minority used to derive this benefit under the SDRF in previous years due either to lack of awareness or apathy on the part of lower-level government officials.

In view of the huge extent of damage to houses in areas affected by the two waves of floods this year, the government has decided to provide rehabilitation grant to each affected family for reconstructing their fully or partially damaged houses. At the same time, the provision for field inspections has been made to ensure that neither any ineligible family avails the RG benefit, nor any eligible family is deprived of the benefit. On the basis of ground-level reports from the revenue circle offices concerned, the respective Deputy Commissioners have already prepared lists of eligible beneficiaries. However, 17 separate teams comprising one minister, one IAS officer and 50 officials will make field visits in various districts and carry out 20 per cent random verification of damaged houses already identified by the Deputy Commissioners.

A few teams have already left for the field inspections, which will have to be completed by July 27.

The State Government has also issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) regarding the mode of verification.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has approved composition of the teams for the field verification exercise. The field inspection team for the Hailakandi district will include Cabinet Minister Parimal Suklabaidya and IAS officer Rakesh Kumar; the team for the Karimganj district will include Cabinet Minister Bimal Bora and IAS officer Manvendra Pratap Singh; the team for the Cachar district will include Cabinet Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah and IAS officer B Kalyan Chakravarthy; the team for the Hojai district will include Cabinet Minister Keshab Mahanta and IAS officer Avinash Purushottam Das Joshi; the team for the Nagaon district will include Cabinet Minister Atul Bora and IAS officer Dr Ashish Kumar Bhutani; the team for the Darrang district will include Cabinet Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary and IAS officer Ravi Shankar Prasad; the team for the Udalguri district will include Cabinet Minister Urkhao Gwra Brahma and IAS officer Dilip Kumar Bora; the team for the Kamrup district will include Cabinet Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary and IAS officer Dr Om Prakash; the team for the Tamulpur district will include Cabinet Minister Sanjay Kishan and IAS officer Dr JB Ekka; the team for the Nalbari district will include Cabinet Minister Nandita Gorlosa and IAS officer Dr Lakshmanan S; the team for the Baksa district will include Cabinet Minister Jogen Mohan and IAS officer BR Samal; the team for the Bongaigaon district will include Cabinet Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass and IAS officer Umananda Doley; the team for the Barpeta district will include Cabinet Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu and IAS officer MS Manivannan; the team for the Bajali district will include Cabinet Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu and IAS officer Bharat Bhushan Dev Choudhury; the team for the Morigaon district will include Cabinet Minister Pijush Hazarika and IAS officer Syedain Abbasi; the team for the Sonitpur district will include Cabinet Minister Ajanta Neog and IAS officer Partha Pratim Majumdar; and the team for the Dhubri district will include Cabinet Minister Ashok Singhal and IAS officer Pabitra Khound.

The teams have been empowered to delete ineligible names from the lists already prepared by the Deputy Commissioners concerned and also add the names of eligible beneficiaries as and when required. The fund is likely to be released in August after the verification process is completed.

As per SDRF guidelines, beneficiaries are entitled to RG of Rs 95,100 for fully damaged houses (both pucca and kutcha) in plains areas, Rs 1,01,900 for fully damaged houses in hilly areas. Similarly, beneficiaries are entitled to RG of Rs 5,200 for partially damaged houses.

According to preliminary estimates, the state government will require more than Rs 200 crore for providing the rehabilitation grants.

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