TURA, AUG 2: Faced with sharp criticism by the flood-affected victim of plain belt area of West Garo Hills for late distribution of relief, the deputy commissioner of West Garo Hills issued a statement terming the report as “misleading” and “erroneous”.
“Gratuitous relief which is called GR is distributed as per norms of NDRF and SDRF and as per the norms followed by the state government after taking a due, deliberate and conscious decision. It can only be distributed when the authorities have surveyed and declared that a flood situation has arisen after due diligence”, Bakshi said.
He said that rains started creating an impact on July 22 onwards but it reached the situation of being declared flood on July 27, when reports were received from the sub divisional officer Dadenggre and Block Development Officer, Selsella.
Bakshi informed that on July 27, the High Powered Committee was constituted as per instructions of Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma. The committee along with Deputy Commissioner, West Garo Hills, SDO Civil Dadenggre and BDO Selsella and concerned line departments toured the affected areas and after a meeting declared GR as per norms for 10 days.
“The GR distribution started on July 31 itself and provisioning of relief to the relief camps started on July 30. Since this relief and
GR was declared for 10 days for a population of about 1.23 lakh people and 151 villages which are still submerged – it is evidently an extremely onerous task to organize the relief materials and ration within such a short time but it was still successfully done to the credit of the Supply staff and willing suppliers after most suppliers expressed their inability to supply. We resolved our issues with suppliers and some of their bills have been cleared”, he stated.
He also stated that the district administration and state government cannot start distribution simply when it starts raining even with utmost sympathetic consideration for the people.
He also informed that the relief distribution is being done by the Village Relief Distribution Committee as decided which is a representative and holistic committee and it is done under the supervision of the entire village and officials of Block and SDO Civil office.
Bakshi stated that the district administration and the state government have repeatedly gone out of our way to ensure GR distribution to all whether they are able to reach the camps or not. He also stated that distribution of GR by the Village Relief Distribution Committee could be watched and monitored by all and if any discrepancies occur it can be brought before the administration.-From Our Correspondent
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