A team of insurance surveyors and loss assessors has submitted that property worth ₹12.5 crore was damaged in the four Bengal villages after the glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in Sikkim on the intervening night of October 3 and 4 last year.
A six-member survey team visited Ghel Khola, Gafur Busty, Deogram and Nazok forest villages between February 14 and 23.
According to the report, the total number of dwellings damaged was 19 in Gafur busty, 17 in Nazok forest village, 16 in Gel Khola and 52 in Deogram, Teesta Bazar.
“A total of 104 huts/buildings were damaged and the valuation of the damaged properties stands at ₹12,53,73,660,” said a source.
The report submitted by the surveyors was discussed in a meeting chaired by Norden Sherpa, executive Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabha member and chairman of the housing committee, at a meeting held at the GTA headquarters in Darjeeling on June 10.
During the meeting, it was apprised that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) principal secretary submitted details of the damage to the group general manager of the public sector company, NHPC, on May 31 to allocate funds "from NHPC" so that the affected persons could be compensated. The NHPC has two dams along the Teesta along these villages.
Following the disaster, the Bengal government promised ₹25 crore assistance to the GTA last year.
Anit Thapa, the GTA chief executive, admitted that the hill body did not receive the promised assistance. “Even the immediate relief work was done after the GTA Sabha members agreed to put in their annual honorarium for this purpose,” said Thapa. GTA Sabha members get anything between ₹20,000 to ₹55,000 as honorarium.
The Kalimpong district administration, however, said that as per government norms, it distributed ₹75,000 each to owners of 483 fully damaged houses and ₹5,000 to 76 partially damaged houses as compensation in Pedong, Lava and Kalimpong 1 blocks following the October incident.
Victims maintained that ₹75,000 was too paltry to build a livable house.
Darjeeling MP Raju Bista of the BJP said that had the Bengal government declared the incident a “disaster”, it would have paved the way for the use of around ₹120 crore from the state disaster relief fund.
“Because of this (non-declaration of a disaster), thousands of people continue to suffer,” said Bista.
