HP suffers Rs 2,900 cr loss due to rains: CM

Himachal Pradesh suffered losses to the tune of Rs 2,900 crore due to excessive rains during the current monsoons, Chief Minister Virbhdra Singh today said.

Presiding over the State Disaster Management Authority meeting to review losses to public and private property due to excessive rains, Singh said due to early onset of monsoon, abnormally high rainfall was experienced from June 15 to 17, which was 576 to 1358 per cent above normal.

Kinnaur district, which received 193.5 mm rains on June 17 against normal rainfall of 0.7 mm on that day, suffered the maximum damage, while Sirmour district received 136. 8 mm rains on June 17 against normal rainfall of 1.8 mm.

The Chief Minister said state government functionaries, Border Road Organisation (BRO) and other agencies did commendable work on war footing to restore normalcy in the affected areas and added that Rs 129.24 crore was released under State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for providing immediate relief out of which Rs. 57.57 crore was provided to Deputy Commissioners and Rs. 71.76 crore to various departments.

A memorandum, putting the losses at Rs 1,972 crore had been submitted to the Centre and a Central Team and later a team of the 14th Finance Commission also visited Kinnaur.

Singh said 43 people died due to heavy rains and landslides, while 24,145 livestock perished. Loss of cattle was estimated at Rs 5.51 crore and damage to houses and other properties was to the tune of over Rs 200 crore.

He said a loss of Rs 472.35 crore was caused to power and other infrastructure.