 "J Jayalalithaa")
In a letter to PM, Jaya said there has been extensive destruction and damage to infrastructure as well as private property of thousands of families.
"Ex-gratia payments are being made for the damages to huts and dwellings in slum areas as part of the relief operations, and the restoration and reconstruction of public infrastructure will have to be done out of Central and State Government resources," she said.
The state had submitted a memorandum on November 23, 2015 highlighting the damages and will submit a supplementary memorandum detailing the extent of damages in the most recent rounds of floods.
"......in this extraordinary and unprecedented natural catastrophe, many households have lost all their personal and domestic durable assets, which are very valuable and cannot be adequately compensated through the existing structure of relief payments."
Many of the households are in the low and middle income groups whose life savings have been wiped out in the floods. For these households, it is essential that a special set of measures are conceived and implemented.
She urged insurance companies may be directed to take up the survey and settlement of the claims on a campaign mode, following a summary procedure, and with a liberal application of the norms so that such households could receive insurance payments early which would enable them to restart their normal lives.
"It would be desirable if this procedure is outlined at the earliest and the process of settlement of claims completed within a period of a week or ten days," said the Chief Minister.
She also suggested as a special measure banks may be directed to provide a limited moratorium on repayment, as well as a rescheduling of the loans, which would lower the Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) payments and offer a measure of relief to the flood affected households.
Many of the affected families have lost their personal vehicles and almost all their durable domestic assets including furniture, refrigerators, television sets, washing machines and kitchen equipment.
She also asked for liberal soft loans by the banks for purchase of vehicles, educational loans to continue to fund the education of children, and personal loans of an amount up to Rs 5 lakh to finance essential domestic durable assets.
"It is only with such a package of assistance that many of these families would be in a position to restart their lives," said Jayalalithaa, adding that state will provide special certification to all such families, based on which banks may be asked to expeditiously sanction the loans as per their norms.
In addition, to bring down the prices of domestic durable goods to an affordable level, she asked for white goods and kitchen equipment to be sold in the flood affected districts excise duty exemption may be provided till March 31, 2016.
"Given the extraordinarily heavy devastation caused by the floods, I consider that a liberal set of measures on the lines suggested by me undertaken by insurance companies and banks would enable the flood affected families to rebuild their lives. I would be grateful if you could direct the Ministry of Finance to immediately formulate a liberal scheme as suggested and issue appropriate orders and guidelines. Since these families are in need of assistance to rebuild their lives, I request you to take immediate action on my suggestions," she wrote in the letter.
