New Delhi: The government on Wednesday released Rs 7,532 crore to 22 state governments for their respective State Disaster Response Funds.
Both Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have been hit hard by the recent rains and floods, resulting in human casualties. These two states have received Rs 180 crore and Rs 413 crore in aid, respectively.
Maharashtra received the highest allocation of Rs 1,420 crore, Uttar Pradesh received Rs 812 crore, Odisha received Rs 707 crore, Bihar got Rs 624 crore and Gujarat received Rs 584 crore.
The amount has been released as per the recommendations of the Union Home Ministry.
Due to widespread flooding across the country, the guidelines were relaxed and the amount was distributed as emergency aid to states without waiting for the utilisation certificate of the amount provided to the states in the last financial year.
The finance commission usually suggests splitting the annual central contribution into two equal payments.
According to the rules, the funds are given out when the state government sends a report on the actions of the State Disaster Response Fund and a utilisation certificate showing how the money from the previous installment was used.
Due to the critical nature of the situation, however, these protocols were temporarily suspended during the release of the funding.—Inputs from Agencies