As water has started receding in flood-hit Kerala where the death toll was over 200, a lot of financial assistance is required to re-build the losses.
But while Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the UAE has offered Rs 700 crore to the state, there are talks that the Centre may not accept it.
NDTV quoted a senior government official saying that the Centre is not accepting foreign aid from any foreign country, and therefore the same should apply to Kerala, though a decision on this will be taken by the Ministry of External Affairs shortly.
The MEA however said that it hadn’t received any offer for such financial aid from the UAE yet.
The Centre has released Rs 600 crore as relief for Kerala. A team from the Centre is currently assessing the situation to figure out if more funds are required.
But clearly, that is not enough as is evident from the Kerala CM’s tweets in which he has asked for Rs 2600 crore MGNREGA special package for the Central government schemes. The state is also going to ask the Centre for raising the ceiling on borrowing for the state and request NABARD for special schemes to help infrastructure development in agriculture.
