5L relief to kin of those killed in Titli mayhem

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family members of each person who died under the impact of Titli cyclone and Rs 1.50 lakh to each house owner for construction of new houses. The Chief Minister said the government would help the people of cyclone-affected areas and that Rs 10,000 would be paid as compensation for partially damaged houses.

Naidu said that he had personally visited the cyclone affected places in Srikakulam district for two days. He said he reviewed the cyclone losses with the officials before announcing the compensation. The government is distributing 25 kg rice, one kg red gram, one litre palm oil, onions and half kg sugar to the victims free of cost, an official press release said on Sunday.

The compensation to be paid to the farmers for crop losses would be as follows: Rs 20,000 for paddy per acre, Rs 30,000 for banana per acre, Rs 40,000 for horticulture per acre, Rs 1,200 per each coconut tree, Rs 25,000 for cashew per acre.

The Horticulture and Agriculture departments would extend help to remove the damaged plantations in the fields. The financial aid of Rs 6 lakh would be paid for purchasing mechanized boats and Rs 1 lakh for manual boats. The government would give 50 per cent subsidy for fishing nets and Rs 10,000 compensation to each fisherman to help him buy fishing nets.

The government would pay Rs 30,000 per each cattle shed while Rs 30,000 would be paid as compensation for loss of each cattle. Similarly Rs 3,000 compensation would be paid to each goat and sheep loss.

However, the Chief Minister warned the staff of Revenue department that the stringent action would be taken against them, if they failed to attend the work relating to payment of compensation and providing relief to the victims. Besides, the State government appointed senior IAS officer Neerabh Kumar as special officer for monitoring cyclone relief operations.