Health and Revenue Minister Kaul Singh Thakur said that Rs. 3.17 crore had been released for providing pesticides for the treatment of damages to orchards due to recent heavy rains and landslides. He was presiding over a review meeting of the senior officers involved in the disaster management, here today.

Kaul Singh Thakur said that funds amounting to Rs. 28 crore had been released as an immediate relief measure to the affected people in the State. He directed all the concerned departments to make a comprehensive report of the losses due to disaster so that it could be sent to the Government of India for availing special financial assistance.

He said that sufficient quantity of essential commodities had been made dispatched to the Kinnaur district. Sufficient food grains would also be provided to the migrant labourers in the district besides adequate relief to the people who had suffered losses to their houses. He asked the Horticulture and Agriculture departments to prepare a detail estimate of total loss in the district.

Thakur said that people residing on the banks of Yamuna River in Sirmaur district had been evacuated. He directed the authorities to provide immediate relief to the affected people of Sirmaur, Mandi and Shimla districts adding that a team of five specialist doctors had been deputed each in Pooh and Reckong Peo and adequate supply of medicines had been made available to the district. Besides, teams of horticulture and agriculture specialists had also been deployed in Kinnaur district.

The Revenue Minister directed the PWD, Irrigation and Public Health and HP State Electricity Board to restore roads, water supply and power supply in the affected areas on war footing. He also asked the Border Roads Organisation to clear the National Highway at earliest so that link roads could be restored on priority. Chief Secretary S. Roy and other senior officers were present in the meeting.