The Opposition Congress in Manipur has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the recent hailstorm-triggered devastation in the strife-hit state as a “national disaster” and grant a minimum relief of ₹200 crore to the affected.

In a one-page appeal to Modi on Friday, Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee chief K. Meghachandra drew his attention to the “unprecedented natural disaster” triggered by the May 5 hailstorm in different parts of the state.

An official assessment has revealed over 28,000 houses being affected in the hailstorm besides the extensive damage to farmlands and livestock. The spell of the intense hailstorm pierced the roofs of houses with CI sheets and also damaged a good number of vehicles.

Meghachandra’s appeal said the people of Manipur had not experienced a natural disaster of such magnitude, which has damaged thousands of houses and affected lakhs of people.

Requesting Modi to immediately declare “natural disaster as national disaster” and accordingly grant a central government’s “relief of a minimum of ₹200 crore for the affected people of Manipur in a time-bound manner, in the larger interest of the people of Manipur”.

Though the Centre has no fixed criteria to define a natural calamity as a national disaster, the 10th Finance Commission had reviewed a proposal that said a natural calamity could be termed “a national calamity of rarest severity” if one-third of a state’s population is impacted.

The commission (1995-2000) did not define such a calamity but proposed a case-to-case decision, factoring the scale of disaster, assistance required and the state’s ability to deal with such a calamity. However, once a disaster is declared to be of rare severity, assistance to the state is provided at the national level with the Centre even extending 100 per cent additional assistance through the National Calamity Contingency Fund.

This is the second time in three days Meghachandra has flagged the issue. On May 7, he had urged the BJP-led state government to extend substantial and concrete financial help to the hailstorm-hit.