Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday announced financial aid for the flood victims, several of whom lost their houses, after meeting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
According to reports, Jaitley primarily discussed about flood rehabilitation in Chennai, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur during the 45 minute-long meeting with Jayalalithaa at the Secretariat.
After the meeting, Jaitley said that the financial institutions, including banks and insurance companies, have been "extra activated" so that the lives of thousands of floods victims in Tamil Nadu return to normalcy, ANI reported.
"Insurance companies and the banks have to be extra activated in order to help the people. Today morning we had a meeting with all the insurance companies i.e. LIC and GIC companies, 27 public sector banks, national housing banks and 17 private sector banks, so that in addition to the aid what the Central government and the state government is giving, how these financial institution can help the people," Jaitley told reporters.
He said that the bankers will provide soft loans to the people in flood-affected districts who need financial assistance for housing, vehicles and education.
"People have to be rehabilitated in terms of their housing, in terms of household articles, in terms of vehicles, crops have been damaged, shops have been damaged, in some cases people need educational loans," Jaitley said.
"These are the various kinds of banking facilities which are available to the people and therefore we have set very high targets with the banks today. Bankers have been told that loan application for soft loan for each one of these should be considered," he added.
Jaitley, accompanied by minister for small and medium enterprises Kalraj Mishra, also reviewed the damage suffered by the industrial sector in Chennai.
The Tamil Nadu government's issued a statement after the meeting, highlighting that Jayalalithaa has sought an interim assistance of Rs 2,000 crore. It added that the state government is putting together a detail of loss suffered in the floods. The loss has been estimated to be over Rs 8,000 crore, PTI reported.
