THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has sent a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, requesting him to make available the flood relief fund for Kerala after getting the expert committee on natural calamities to meet over it.

Kerala had earlier submitted two memorandums to the Centre in connection with the flood-related losses. After that two Central teams visited Kerala but high-level committee didn’t meet to consider their reports.

Through two memorandums, Rs 5,616 crore was demanded as aide. From National Disaster Response Fund, Rs 2,000 was sought as immediate relief. But only 600 crore was allotted from it.

However, the chief minister said the State still hopes to get help. “We could try once more. We couldn’t get foreign fund. Otherwise we may have got thousands of crores of rupees from abroad. The Centre may give us more funds, taking into account all the above facts…So, let us wait,” the chief minister said.

Meanwhile, the chief minister said that the government would not ask the Air Force to withdraw the cost they had charged us for their rescue operations. The State had honoured them for their best service at flood times.

Forces' charge an old practice

As per Government Accounting Rule, 1990 stated by Controller General of Accounts, in Appendix 5, it is clarified in details what are the charges a state government has to pay for the various kinds of duties armed forces perform during natural and other calamities such as earthquakes, floods, fire and famine.

Besides, other costs as mentioned in the lists, the cost of consumable stores and non-consumable stores, which includes depreciation of an aircraft, repairs and maintenance among all other things will also be chargeable.

This practice has been going on since years back.