Union Home Minister Amit Shah has approved the release of an advance amount of Rs 44.8 crore to the state from the central share of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to provide relief to the people affected by the floods in Sikkim.
Following Shah’s direction, the Home Ministry constituted an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) to assess the damage caused by glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and cloudbursts, an official statement said. Will soon visit the affected areas of Sikkim.
The statement said that the Home Minister has approved the release of both the installments of the central part of SDRF i.e. Rs 44.8 crore in advance to the North-Eastern State for 2023-24 with a view to help the North-Eastern State in providing relief to the affected people. Has given.
The statement said that the Center has assured all possible help to the Sikkim government and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central Government stands shoulder to shoulder with Sikkim.
It was informed that based on the assessment of IMCT, additional central assistance will be sanctioned for Sikkim from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) as per the prescribed procedure.
Due to GLOF, cloud burst and flash flood, there was a sudden increase in the water flow of Teesta River on October 4 due to which several bridges, parts of National Highway-10 and Chungthang Dam were washed away.
Due to this, many small towns in Sikkim and many infrastructure projects in the upper areas of the river valley were affected.
The statement said that the Center is closely monitoring the situation in Sikkim round the clock at the highest level. It said that the Center is fully assisting the Sikkim government by providing timely resources to help in its efforts to deal effectively with the situation.
For this, apart from the equipment used in search and rescue operations, adequate teams of National Disaster Response Force and military personnel have been deployed and helicopters of the Indian Air Force have been provided.
Apart from this, technical teams from the Ministries of Power, Telecom and Roads, Highways and Transport are helping in timely repair of damaged infrastructure and communication networks in the state, the statement said.