Pathanamthitta: Excess overseas aid meant for distribution to the flood-affected will now be channelled to tribal colonies and Scheduled Caste families. A collector’s order issued to this effect is being implemented following distribution of the goods to the intended beneficiaries.
The district administration's storage facilities for flood aid became full last month. It has curtailed the receipt of goods and delayed taking delivery of consignment that had recently landed at the airport in Thiruvananthapuram. Overall, they totalled goods in 812 boxes addressed to the Pathanamthitta district administration. All of them were brought to Pramadom village in Konni block of this district, 100 km north of the state capital. The boxes contained clothes, vessels, medicines and food material meant for those suffering from last month’s deluge and landslides.
The administration had already distributed sufficient material to people who had stayed in flood relief camps. It had also disbursed 50,000 kits to them after such stopgap accommodations had wound up.
Even so, there is excess relief material. In fact, such items stored at Pramadom’s Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium continue to get readied for segregation and distribution. It is in this context the administration decided to send out a portion of the relief material to those traditionally marginalised communities though not particularly affected by the August calamity.
Simultaneously, efforts are also on to donate 30,000 textbook to the district’s school students (through the Deputy Director, Education Department), disinfectants, hand-wash and bleaching powder (Swachh Bharat Mission), medicines (DMO) and biscuits, baby food and clothes (Social Justice Department and SC/ST Department).
