TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Satish Naik was amongst the 38 residents of Sanvorcotto-Cuncolim who suffered damage to his house, besides loss of items in the July 2 floods that left a trail of destruction in the area.
Like many a flood victim, Satish had pinned his hopes on the government for compensation as a sympathetic administration had promised to compensate the victims generously. For, even Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado had announced full compensation, including re-construction of the 15-odd compound walls that came crashing down.
But, all their hopes of receiving a decent compensation appears to have evaporated in thin air.
Believe it or not, each of the 38 flood victims are now entitled for only a meagre compensation ~ Rs 1,400 to be precise, from the district administration.
To add insult to injury, the cheques issued by the Accounts department on July 25 are believed to have lapsed as the 14-day period to encash the same has expired on Thursday. The reason: The administration virtually dilly-dallied in handing over the cheques to the victims, with the cheques remaining in the district Collectorate without being dispatched. Sources said the subordinate staff were orally instructed not to hand over the cheques to the victims fearing a backlash over the meagre compensation.
When questioned over the meagre compensation awarded to the Cuncolim flood victims, both district Collector, ND Agrawal and Additional Collector, Morajkar maintained that the compensation was worked out based on the Central government norms. “We had no option than to go strictly by the Central government guidelines while working out the relief and compensation to the victims,” Morajkar said, while admitting that the cheques have lapsed after the expiry of the 14-day validity.
District Collector, Agrawal, however, said the administration will re-validate the cheques, but he asserted that the amount of compensation will remain unchanged. Caught on the wrong foot, sources in the know informed that the district Collectorate witnessed a flurry of activity on Thursday evening to re-validate the cheques and hand over the same to the beneficiaries. It is learnt that an SOS was sent to the Cuncolim talathi to collect the re-validated cheques and hand them over to the flood victims.Herald understands that the check-list prepared by the Salcete Mamlatdar office had put the total loss suffered by the 38 households to Rs 9.39 lakh. But, what the compensation worked out by the administration works out to be a paltry Rs 53,200.
Interestingly, the residents had suffered losses to the tune of Rs 5.35 lakh over the destruction caused to their compound walls. Even while the Fisheries minister had promised reconstruction of the compound walls, the district administration now says there’s no provision for compensation for damage to compound walls. And, even if the administration decides to treat the destruction caused to compound wall on par with house collapse, sources in the know say the total compensation may not cross Rs 45,000.
