Ampati, Oct 11: As part of his tour of rain-ravaged areas of Garo Hills, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday visited and met the people of flood affected areas under Purakhasia C&RD Block and also assessed the extent of damages caused by the torrential rains in parts of South West Garo Hills.

The Chief Minister while interacting with affected families and residents of the area at a public gathering at Purakhasia Block complex, said the purpose of his visit was to meet them, listen to the hardships faced by them in the aftermath of flood in the area and to see what relief and assistance can be provided to them from the government and from the administration. He thanked the administration, the BDOs and officials of the line departments for quickly responding, managing and serving the people during these challenging situations without respite.

Earlier the Deputy Commissioner Hema Nayak had presented a report on flood affected areas in the district, the number of households affected and relief materials reached to the people in the affected villages. The Chief Minister said that if any of the victims/households have not received such relief materials due to communication gap they can inform the VEC secretaries or their BDOs directly so that required relief materials can be planned and reached to them.

During the public meeting, Chief Minister announced that an amount of Rs. 1.30 lakh each would be given to the houses that have been fully damaged and for partially damaged houses assistance would be given as per the rules depending on extent of damage. He also assured that necessary assistance and relief to all households whose plantation crops, fishery ponds, livestock, etc have been damaged after assessing the report of damages given by Deputy Commissioner in accordance with the rules.

He also gave suggestion to the administration and officers of line departments not to be too tight or stick too much to rules and regulations while giving provisions to the affected people as this is the moment when they most need the help and support from the administration and the concerned departments.

As for damaged bridges he asked the PWD to restore those bridges by making temporary repairs to enable at least light and small vehicles to ply even if they cannot be restored completely. As many women had come forward to report about their damaged irrigation canals, the Chief Minister also asked the Water Resources to make small protection walls as short term solutions and assured that funds would be immediately sanctioned for such protection walls. He also assured of immediate sanction for repair and reconstruction of several schools damaged during the flood from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Later, the Chief Minister visited and inspected the Batua Bazar area of Purakhasia that was inundated and damaged by flood as well as the damaged bridge at Balijora before proceeding to other flood and landslide affected areas in West Garo Hills region.