The Bengal government on Friday fixed amounts of compensation for various kinds of damage caused to properties by Cyclone Yaas and made it clear that separate task forces at state, district, subdivisional and block levels would work under direct superintendence of the chief secretary to identify the eligible beneficiaries.

According to a notification, persons whose dwelling houses have been fully damaged will get Rs 20,000 each, while owners of partially damaged homes will be provided with Rs 5,000 each.

For loss of crops, one can get a maximum assistance of Rs 2,500 and minimum of Rs 1,000. But the department concerned has the discretion to change the amount depending on the extent of the damage.

A betel vine farmer will be eligible for a compensation of Rs 5,000 for his/her loss. For loss of milch animals like buffalo or cow, one can get Rs 30,000 each whereas for pig or goat, the owner is entitled to a compensation of Rs 3,000.

The government will pay a compensation of Rs 25,000 for loss of draft animals like bullock or those used as aid to work.

To ensure that proper compensation is fixed for each loss, the state government engaged six departments — agriculture, disaster management, animal resources development, horticulture, fisheries and micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) — as nodal departments to identify the victims of the cyclone and fix the compensation.

For instance, applications for compensation for crop loss will be examined and arranged by the agriculture department, whereas claims for dwelling houses will be verified and finalised by the disaster management department, a senior official at Nabanna said.

“A detailed clarification of schemes and eligibility criteria with separate SOPs will be shared soon by all the nodal departments with the task forces at four different levels,” he added.

The notification issued by the state disaster management and civil defence department on Friday stated that the entire government machinery in the Yaas-affected districts would work on “mission mode” to ensure the successful distribution of compensation.

The task force authorities at each level have been directed to ensure submission of comprehensive and integrated applications by the victims so that they can receive the relief according to the categorised eligibility detailed in the notification.

The fisheries department will pay Rs 10,000 each to owners of fully damaged boats and Rs 5,000 to those whose boats have been partially damaged.

Weavers engaged in the handloom sector as well as artisans involved with handicraft works whose tools were either lost or damaged in the cyclone will get Rs 4,100 each after proper verification of their applications by the MSME department. Same amounts will be paid to artisans and weavers for the loss of their raw materials.

However, for damage to work shed or godown, they will be entitled to a maximum ex-gratia of Rs 10,000.

The government has asked all stakeholders to complete the verification of the applications between June 19 and 31 so that disbursement of the compensation could be directly credited to the bank accounts of the victims between July 1 and 7 without fail.

Chief mentor of Paschimbanga Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Federation Manoj Chakraborty has welcomed the initiative by the state government. “It is a great initiative and I am hopeful that all victims of the cyclone would get a little respite through such initiative”.

Learning the hard way, the state government has launched a series of initiatives this time to avert any kind of controversy like it faced after Amphan last year.

“The government did not involve gram panchayats this time in the selection process of the beneficiaries. The government officers are now involved in drawing up flawless lists of beneficiaries,” said a source.

Moreover, the state government has strengthened the verification process compared to last year only to ensure that actual victims get the compensation.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Thursday announced Duare Tran (relief on doorstep), a government programme with initial funds of Rs 1,000 crore to distribute compensation and relief and to make sure that the benefits didn’t reach ineligible applicants.