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Month after ditwah: Rs 25,000 initial relief reaches some, misses others
View(s):By Sajeniya Sathanandan
One month after the Cyclone Ditwah catastrophe, the distribution of the Rs 25,000 initial financial assistance pledged to disaster-hit families for cleaning their houses is still ongoing.
Some families say they have received the payment, while others complain of delays due to administrative hassles.
The Sunday Times learns that the pace of distribution varies by the district, with officials grappling with multiple challenges.
Finance Ministry Secretary Harshana Suriyapperuma has said the Treasury has allocated Rs. 7.5 billion to distribute the initial Rs. 25,000 payment to each household affected by the disaster, the worst to hit the country in decades.
The disaster affected 22 of Sri Lanka’s 25 districts, sparing only the southern districts.
In the Puttalam district, 91,798 houses have been selected to receive the Rs. 25,000 compensation. This includes 646 fully destroyed houses and 9,473 partially damaged houses.
Puttalam District Secretary Indika Silva said 74,974 houses, or 82 per cent of the total affected houses, have received the initial Rs. 25,000 payment, and 16,824 houses remain to be paid.
For the 646 houses that were destroyed, the government has pledged Rs 5 million each to help owners rebuild.
Also severely affected were the district’s traders. A.L.A. Premaratne, an electric item shop owner, said he has suffered a loss of more than Rs. 2.5 million. He ran his shop in the front part of his house, where he lived with his family. When asked about the initial Rs 25,000 payments, he said he, along with about 30 families in the neighbourhood, has received the money.
Matale District Secretary Prasanna Madanayake said all affected households—about 4,445 or 4,450—in the district have received the payments. It cost the government nearly Rs. 100 million.
With the Rs 25,000 payment strictly for cleaning and washing houses, not for structural damage, he said the secretariat had requested about Rs 40 to 50 million to cover the repair costs of about 1,822 houses.
Lakshmi Kanthan, a resident of Gammaduwa Kaluwalthenna in the Matale district, told the Sunday Times he and many others in the village have not received the initial Rs. 25,000 payment, though officials visited them to collect information.
He said the process has been made difficult by formalities, as the affected families must visit the Grama Niladhari’s office to submit an application which is then forwarded to the Divisional Secretariat with the Grama Niladhari’s recommendation. As a result, the payments have been delayed. This is the case in many areas in the Colombo district as well.
Nuwara Eliya District Secretary R.A.D.T.N. Tennakoon said 4,961 households had received the Rs 25,000 payment. She said payments were paid as and when applications were received. More than 4,000 houses suffered damage when the disaster hit the district.
A resident who introduced himself by his first name, Kananathan, said cracks have appeared in many houses following last month’s disaster and called for speedy government intervention to avert a further calamity.
He claimed no family in his neighbourhood at Renthapola in the Nuwara Eliya District has received the Rs 25,000 payment.
Still recovering from the disaster, he said he lived in perpetual fear of his house collapsing and entertained little hope of receiving any compensation.
The Sunday Times learns, through multiple sources, that in the Wattala-Hendala area, even unaffected households received the Rs 25,000 disaster relief. These residents claimed loss of work to justify receiving the payment from the Grama Niladhari alongside families whose homes were actually affected.
Thambi Nawarathnam, a resident of the Spring Valley area in the Badulla district, said many people in his area are not aware of the compensation package, and many have not received the initial Rs. 25,000 payment.
He said several families who found refuge in schools have been asked to leave, but they have not been paid the promised relief.
In the Colombo district, Wellampitiya residents G. Ariyadasa and M.K.M. Thaslim Deen said they, along with several residents in their neighbourhood, are yet to receive the Rs. 25,000 payment, though the Grama Niladhari visited the area and registered their names.
With the floods wiping out their income sources and dealing them a severe economic blow, they sounded devastated, helpless and uncertain about how to rebuild their homes and lives.
Most residents are daily wage earners and poverty-stricken. They look forward to receiving the government’s relief package. But most of them have not received any compensation, though the Grama Niladhari has visited them and collected their forms.
Residents complain that some Grama Niladharis are imposing new rules—such as requiring flood levels to have reached at least six feet—for people to qualify for relief. Some officers visited affected areas only several days after water levels receded and residents had already cleaned their houses at their own expense.
However, a cross section of Grama Niladaris (GN) from affected districts told the Sunday Times that in disbursing the assistance, they face practical difficulties, including verifying information collected from the affected parties. This is because there were instances of several persons claiming assistance from the same residence by providing inaccurate information.
They said the lack of clarity in the circulars issued to them also added to the problems they faced.
The officers said that despite these obstacles, more than half of the eligible households have been paid, and they hope to complete the payments in the next few days.
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