Gujarat floods: State govt announces relief package of Rs 1,500 crore for Banaskantha, Patan districts

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Thursday announced a special relief package of Rs 1,500 crore for the flood-affected Banaskantha and Patan districts. The announcement was made by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who spent five days in that region to get first-hand information about the losses caused by the flood, a government release said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a flood-relief package of Rs 500 crore for the entire state during his visit on 25 July. [caption id=“attachment_3891347” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Now, the state government has announced the Rs 1,500 crore package for the northern districts, which have been officially declared as ‘disaster-affected areas’ through a gazette notification on Tuesday by the state revenue department. Out of this, Rs 1,311 crore will be spent to compensate for agricultural losses as well as for the land improvement measures. As per the release, Rs 75 crore has been allotted for electrification, Rs 20 crore for cattle loss, Rs 15 crore for compensating business losses and Rs 79 crore will be spent for various other schemes of the revenue department. For Dhanera town, which is the main commercial hub of Banaskantha district and was hit badly by the flood, the state government has announced a special package, wherein small traders, shopkeepers and vendors would get cash compensation ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 75,000, it said. For each cattle that died in the flood, the state would give a relief of Rs 40,000 while a compensation of Rs 6 lakh will be given to the kin of those who died in the deluge. It also includes Rs 2 lakh announced by the prime minister earlier. In Banaskantha alone, 60 people have died in various rain-related incidents, the release said. To prevent such a situation in the future, the state government would explore the possibility of building a flood protection wall outside Dhanera, Rupani was quoted as saying in the release.