50% applications for cyclone Yaas relief in Bengal binned as 'bogus': Report
The state government last month received 381,774 applications at the camps set up under its Duare Tran (relief at doorstep) programme for cyclone Yaas, the official said.
The West Bengal government has declined almost 50 per cent of the applications, which were filed seeking compensation for the Cyclone Yaas damage, as "bogus", after spot verification, PTI quoted a senior official as saying.
The state government last month received 381,774 applications at the camps set up under its Duare Tran (relief at doorstep) programme, the official said, reported PTI.
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"After due verification of all applications, done between June 18 and 30, at least 1,86,815 were rejected - mainly by block development officers or heads of urban local bodies - as they were found to be fake," PTI quoted him as saying.
More than 162,000 applications seeking relief were filed in South 24 Paraganas district, of them over 75,000 were rejected. In Purba Midnapore, 72,878 applications of total 117,654 submissions were rejected.
"We found out that 12,000 of the 14,000 applications filed from Nandigram-I block were bogus. In Egra II, only 52 of 6,874 submissions were found to be genuine," PTI quoted him as saying.
Cyclone Yaas struck Bengal and its neighbouring state Odisha in May and left with massive destruction in the coastal regions.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, while rolling out the relief programme in May, had asked those affected by the cyclone to personally apply in writing and not in bulk as she sought to avoid any controversy after the relief distribution at the time of cyclone Amphan.
Learning from the past mistakes, the state government thoroughly cross-checked the applications this time, unlike after cyclone Amphan when relief was distributed by treating all the applications as authentic.
"This time, the administration verified every claim before giving its approval," the officer said, reported PTI. He added that the genuine claimants have started receiving compensation from July 1.
The chief minister had earlier claimed that the state incurred a total loss of over ₹20,000 crore due to the natural disaster.
The government notified that someone whose agricultural land suffered damaged due to the cyclone would get between ₹1,000 and ₹25,000 and any farmer cultivating betel leaf and a person who lost his cattle will be able to draw a compensation of ₹5,000 and ₹30,000 respectively.
Further, ₹5,000 compensation was notified by the state government for partially damaged mudhouses and ₹20,000 for the fully damaged ones.