Bengal govt finds 34,000 complaints of cyclone compensation irregularities true: Official

The administration has decided to transfer a compensation amount of Rs 20,000 to the bank accounts of each of those 34,000 people who did not get the financial relief though their houses were damaged in the cyclone, he said. Steps have been taken against panchayat functionaries and Block Development Officers (BDOs) on the charge of being involved in the irregularities, the senior government official told PTI.

The West Bengal government has received around 40,000 complaints alleging irregularities in the distribution of financial relief to the people affected by Cyclone Amphan and found that nearly 34,000 of them are genuine, an official said on Friday. The administration has decided to transfer a compensation amount of Rs 20,000 to the bank accounts of each of those 34,000 people who did not get the financial relief though their houses were damaged in the cyclone, he said.

Steps have been taken against panchayat functionaries and Block Development Officers (BDOs) on the charge of being involved in the irregularities, the senior government official told PTI. "It has been decided that once the name of these cyclone-affected people and details of their bank accounts are received after verification, the allocated fund of Rs 20,000 will be transferred to their accounts. There are around 34,000 genuine complaints from districts where the cyclone had caused severe damage," the IAS officer said. The state government has already frozen the bank accounts of several people in Nadia district who have received a similar amount of money as compensation though their houses were not damaged by the cyclone. "Magistrates in other cyclone-affected districts have been asked to freeze bank accounts of those who have received the money wrongfully. These accounts will remain non-functional till the account holders return the money to the government," the official said. Five BDOs have also been show-caused by the government in this connection. There are mistakes on part of the block level officials, but we cannot rule out the pressure they had faced from the local leaders in preparing the lists, the official said. The maximum number of complaints regarding irregularities in distribution of the compensation has been received from Purba Medinipore district, official sources said.

Similar complaints were received from North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia and Howrah districts, they said. The state government has released a total amount of Rs 6,800 crore as compensation for those whose houses were damaged by Cyclone Amphan.

More than 10 lakh people have received Rs 20,000 each to repair their houses but there have been complaints that many people whose houses were not damaged also got the money. Opposition parties have alleged that relatives and friends of ruling Trinamool Congress leaders in the districts have received government money to repair their houses which were not damaged by the cyclone. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has promised strict action against those involved in the irregularities in the distribution of compensation to the cyclone-affected people.

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