Union Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the Centre has accepted Punjab’s proposal for reconstruction of 36,703 houses damaged during recent floods and every family that has lost its house will be given one lakh 60 thousand rupees each for the purpose.

 

 

Speaking to the media in Ludhiana, today, he said the state government had earlier given the proposal for 14,000 houses but later increased it to total 36,703, last night, which had been accepted by his Ministry under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna-Grameen before. Mr Chouhan said the consent letter has been handed over to Punjab Agriculture Minister, Gurmeet Singh Khudian. He said an amount of 74 crore rupees has also been cleared for giving free grain seeds to affected farmers in the state. Working days under the MG-NAREGA programme will also been increased from 100 to 150 days.

 

 

Assuring that the Centre is standing with the flood affected people of the state Mr Chouhan said that whatever proposal the state government would send regarding the damage done by the floods, that will be taken care of. The Minister said that out of the 1600 crore rupees relief package announced by the Prime Minister during his recent visit to flood affected Punjab, the advance installment of 240 crore rupees of National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) has already been released.

 

 

Mr Chouhan was on a day-long visit to Ludhiana to interact with beneficiaries of Rural Development Schemes and Self Help Group Didis besides inaugurating a newly constructed administrative block of ICAR-IIMR.