A bridge over troubled waters

MUMBAI: If you are among the thousands of victims of the deluge that has proved to be a great ‘leveller’ in Maharashtra, you’d better do your own rehabilitation. For the state government has once again done what it usually does, send missives to Delhi seeking a financial package. The amount sought this time is Rs 500 crore.

And you thought the Centre will rush to your help? Perish the thought. Because as the CM Vilasrao Deshmukh himself admitted, the Centre is yet to take a call on the aid to be sanctioned for the ’05-floods.

The package proposed last year included payment of Rs 1 lakh to the kin of a bereaved person and Rs 50,000 each to the injured. In addition, the state would also provide 10 kg of rice, 10 kg jowar, and ten litres of kerosene to each of the affected family.

“We have written to the Centre seeking Rs 500 crore for relief work in flood-affected areas,” Mr Deshmukh told reporters on Tuesday after a meeting of the state Cabinet in Mumbai to discuss the flood situation. The state government has not yet arrived at an aggregate figure of losses due to heavy rains, Mr Deshmukh said. “That will take some time because some parts are still receiving rains,” he said.

And if you’re a die-hard optimist, here’s a straw you can clutch on. Assures Mr Deshmukh, “We won’t wait for the central assistance to come to start relief operations. We have decided to implement the same relief package that we executed last year, and disbursement of financial assistance and food grains is already underway”.

For the record, so far 97 people have been killed in rain-related incidents in various parts of the state and over a lakh have been evacuated from low-lying areas. There is a flood situation in 2,172 villages of 104 tehsils in 19 districts and more than 63,000 families have been evacuated to safer places, Mr Deshmukh has told reporters.