IMPHAL, January 11: The Manipur government has sought Rs 500 crore as relief assistance from the Centre for the damages inflicted by the January 4 earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, said Chief Secretary O Nabakishore Singh.
The Chief Secretary informed this to media persons during a press conference held today at his office chamber, with regards to the announcement of the final Electoral Roll 2016 publication.
He informed that Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction Rs 500 crore as relief assistance taking into account the extensive damages inflicted by the recent quake.
Noting that Tamenglong and Senpati are the two districts severely affected by the quake, Nabakishore revealed that a sum of Rs 10 crore has been earmarked as an immediate rehabilitation measure which includes Rs 5 crore for Senapati, Rs 1.5 crore each for Imphal West, East and Tamenglong districts and Rs 50,000 each for the remaining districts.
The rehabilitation package (approximate) will be provided through the DCs concerned, he asserted.
The Chief Secretary also informed that the three member team of IIT Roorkee led by Jodhpur Director, CVR Murthy, had inspected various quake damaged buildings and infrastructures including the three Ima market, secretariat buildings, High Court, Manipur Assembly building RIMS etc.
The team has declared Luxmi Market, New Market, the Minister Block of New Secretariat buildings as unsafe, said Nabakishore adding that the authority would cordon off and restrict movement within a 4 metres radius of the damaged structures.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary further informed that a meeting was held today at his office chamber with top officials of the IOC led by its executive director, Deepankar Ray, wherein they discussed on measures to improve the supply of petroleum products in Manipur.
He said that the problem being face by the state, especially in term of availability of petroleum products during bandhs and blockades would soon be over once the Malom storage depot is made functional as its capacity is thrice the size of the present Chingmeirong depot.
With construction of the Malom storage depot almost over the IOC officials have informed that that the Oil Industries Safety Development (OISD) board would grant permission to operate the depot by April 1, he said adding that the IOC is targeting filling up all the storage tanks by May 15.
Although the storage capacity of the Sekmai (LPG) bottling plant is 1800 MT, it only manages to store only five-day worth of stock, said the Chief Secretary.
There will be no dearth of LPG once the plant is able to store in its full capacity, he continued.
The Chief Secretary revealed that the IOC has set February 15 as their target to meet the LPG supply of the State and added that to realise its goal it had started giving work schedule on Sundays and extended hours in normal days.
At the same time, the Chief Secretary also informed that LPG consumers can now take the full advantage of online booking as the IOC has introduced online booking system through Interactive Voice Response System and SMS booking systems (sms no. 7670024365) or at www.mylpg.in and www.indian.co.in.
Smart phone users can download the mobile application ‘Indaneapp’, he said.