Over 13,000 houses were fully damaged in floods: Kerala govt

KOCHI: Over 13,000 houses were fully damaged and over 2.4 lakh houses partially damaged in the reent floods, state government informed the high court.
Steps are being taken to find land for those who lost their land along with the houses and financial assistance is being granted in stages to the victims, the court was informed.
According to statistics produced by the government before the court, 13,340 houses were fully damaged.Of this, 3,411 are in Thrissur, 2,314 in Ernakulam, 1,825 in Idukki, 1,429 in Palakkad, 1,162 in Alappuzha, 722 in Wayanad, 659 in Pathanamthitta, 495 in Malappuram, 481 in Kottayam, 236 in Thiruvananthapuram, 214 in Kozhikode, 188 in Kollam, 162 in Kannur and 42 are in Kasaragod.
Of those whose houses were fully damaged, 7,457 opted for own construction and 6,594 were paid first instalment. A total of 48,381 victims were paid Rs 10,000 each and 8,469 were paid Rs 60,000 each. Rupees 1.25 lakh each was paid to 155 victims and Rs 2.5 lakh each to 62 victims.
A total of 2,43,690 houses were partially damaged in the floods, revealed the statistics. There were 42,214 appeals regarding houses being partially damaged with the highest number of 30,300 in Ernakulam district followed by Alappuzha (8,000) and Pathanamthitta (3,000).
In Ernakulam, land required for 157 victims has been identified, said the government’s report. A total of 2,182 appeals for totally damaged houses are pending in Ernakulam. In Idukki, 405 victims are in ‘puramboke’ and need land. In Palakkad, 139 victims don’t have land and 84 are in ‘puramboke’. In Wayanad, 109 victims are in ‘puramboke’ and 2.2 acres was received through sponsorship, said the government report.