The Centre on Wednesday said it has approved a financial assistance of Rs 111.70 crore for Rajasthan, Manipur and Meghalaya for crop damage due to locust attack, drought and flood during the 2019-20 kharif season.
A decision in this regard was taken in the May 15 meeting of the High Level Committee (HLC), chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, an official statement said.
HLC has approved a proposal to grant a central assistance of Rs 111.70 to three states -- Rajasthan, Manipur and Meghalaya -- for incurring kharif (summer) crop damage due to natural calamities, it said.
While Rs 68.65 crore has been approved for Rajasthan, where the summer crop was affected due to desert locust pest attack, Rs 26.53 crore is for Manipur which faced crop damage because of drought.
The remaining assistance of Rs 16.52 crore has been approved for Meghalaya, where the crop was affected due to flood and landslide, the statement said.
HLC has approved the central assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) as per the existing norms, subject to the adjustment of 50 per cent of balances available in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) account as on April 1 of 2019-20 financial year.
The Home Ministry has asked its finance counterpart to release the approved amount to the respective state governments, the statement added.
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