Rs 120 crore compensation distributed in Uttarakhand: Vijay Bahuguna

DEHRADUN: Compensation of Rs 120 crore has been distributed to those affected by floods in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said today.


A meeting of District Magistrates of affected areas had been convened on August 29 to discuss identification of land to rehabilitate devastated villages, Bahuguna told reporters here.

"The opinion of the Geological Survey of India will be taken into consideration in rehabilitating devastated villages and once they are rehabilitated, their names will be suffixed with 'Naveen' which means new," he said.

The amount of Rs 2,000 to be given as rent per month to people rendered homeless by the crisis till the time they get a permanent accommodation of their own has been revised to Rs 3,000, he said. The period for payment has also been extended from six months to one year, he said.

About 300 villages were affected by the calamity, he said, adding that the government had sought a list of people whose houses had been damaged completely in the tragedy.

Bahuguna said Border Roads Organisation and other departments like PWD were doing their job properly, but their operations had not gathered speed due to inclement weather.

However, the state government's priority was to repair and rebuild the roads at the earliest, he said, adding that the mule tracks have been restored which is of great help to people in affected villages.

The state government had earlier set September 30 as the deadline for repairing damaged roads.

He said the biggest challenge before the government was to rehabilitate villages which suffered massive destruction in the calamity and to impart vocational training to youths belonging to families which lost everything they had in the wake of the disaster.

The Union Labour Ministry, FICCI and several other organisations have agreed in principle to provide vocational training to youths in affected areas.