The Kerala government has decided to provide Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the kin of those who lost their lives in the recent landslides and floods due to the heavy rains in the state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
The state government will also provide Rs 10 lakh to those who lost their homes and land in rain-related disasters, the Chief Minister said in a release .
Of the Rs 5 lakh to be paid to families of those who died in the recent disasters, Rs 4 lakh would come from the State Disaster Response Fund and the remaining Rs 1 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, he said.
The decisions were taken in a Cabinet meeting which also decided to provide financial assistance to the family of Vaishakh H of Rashtriya Rifle Battalion who was killed in an encounter with terrorists on October 11.
The government has decided that after the Military Welfare Department pays Rs 10 lakh, towards the remainder of the Rs 27.5 lakh loan he had availed for building a house for his family, any remaining amount of the loan would be paid out of the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, the Chief Minister said in the release.
Vaishakh was among the five Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), who died in a gunfight with terrorists during an operation in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. Besides these, he also announced that Rs 5 lakh each would be paid out of the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund to the families of the two men who died due to electrocution on Monday.
One of the families would also be provided a house under the Life scheme, he said. According to the police the two men, found dead in a canal in Kochi, died due to electrocution during suspected illegal electrofishing activity.