Chennai: As the state was sunk in four rounds of recent floods that resulted in catastrophic destruction, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the event as a national calamity. In a letter to the PM, Jayalalithaa suggested a special set of measures for the Centre to consider and implement at the earliest as many families, mostly in the low and middle income groups have lost their life savings.
The flood-hit families have lost all valuable personal belongings and household durable assets, which could not be adequately compensated through the existing structure of relief payments, she said. As many of these households would have insured their homes, personal effects, domestic durable assets and personal vehicles, the insurance companies could be directed to take up the survey and settlement of the claims on a campaign mode, following a summary procedure. Liberal application of the norms has to be followed so that such households could receive insurance payments within a week or ten days which would enable them to restart their normal lives. As many of these households would have financed their homes, vehicles and other household effects by availing of bank loans, she suggested that the banks could be directed to provide a limited moratorium on repayment, as well as a rescheduling of the loans which would lower the EMI payments.
For the families that have lost their personal vehicles and household assets such as refrigerators, washing machines and others, she suggested the Centre to get banks to extend soft loans for new purchases, education loans and personal loans up to Rs 500,000.
