Flood-Hit Nagaland Wanted Rs 100 Crore, It Hasn't Reached So Far, Is Govt Listening?

Crippled for more than a month by floods and landslides that have left 12 people dead, Nagaland waits for the end of monsoon season and funds from Centre to start returning to normalcy.

The Inter-ministerial central team led by MHA joint secretary KB Singh, which arrived in the state on Tuesday to assess the extent of damage based on which Centre would decide on the financial help, left for New Delhi on Friday. But, it would take some time before funds arrive.

State disaster management authority secretary Rovilatuo Mor said, "The central team will submit its report. We too have to prepare and submit a supplementary memorandum and only after that, the funds will arrive. So far we haven¡¯t received any funds from the Centre."

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Chief minister Neiphiu Rio had requested for an advance of Rs 100 crore to repair severed surface communication infrastructure, but that too has not come yet.

Mor said that the state does not want to start any restoration work with whatever funds it has from the previous year, at least not until the end of the ongoing monsoon season.

"Everything depends on the weather. We are trying for some temporary restoration work but not the permanent restoration because if it starts raining heavily again, we will be back to square one," Mor said. He added that relief materials are being constantly supplied to the affected people

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The state earlier had estimated Rs 800 crore for rebuilding the damaged infrastructure, which includes roads and houses, but Mor said that this amount is likely to change.

Rio has been appealing in Twitter for help and has received strong support from many, including former cricketer VVS Laxman and spiritual guru Sadhguru, who have appealed for contributions to the CM¡¯s relief fund.

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput travelled down to Kohima and handed over a cheque of Rs 1.25 crore to the CM¡¯s Relief Fund.

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According to the state disaster management, more than 13% of Nagaland¡¯s population, comprising more than 48,000 families in 532 villages, has been hit by one of the worst floods the state has seen.

Since 26 July, relentless monsoon has ravaged the state, causing floods, landslides and land slippage, leading to the death of 12 and displacing more than 3,000 families.

The report says that unprecedented disaster during the monsoon has disrupted road connectivity in several locations, rendered many people homeless, damaged agricultural lands and affected major development projects of the state.

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About 359 locations have been totally cut off. Kiphere, Tuensang and Phek bordering Myanmar have been cut off for more than 15 days.

On Thursday Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his Facebook post appealed to the people of the state to reciprocate the solidarity Nagaland had shown a few weeks back by donating Rs 1 crore to Kerala chief minister¡¯s relief fund.

Vijayan said in his post, "We are a society struggling to overcome the perils of a huge deluge. Now, the northeast state of Nagaland is also trapped in floods.

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They had reached out to us during our crisis. Nagaland deputy chief minister had visited me in Thiruvananthapuram and expressed solidarity.

They handed over their share of assistance to Kerala. We should keep their love in our mind. Let's help Nagaland also in overcoming their distress. Let's stand with them and declare our solidarity with them."