Centre to consider raising Kerala's borrowing limit: Minister
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 30 : Asking public and private insurance companies to quickly settle claims filed by the flood-affected in Kerala, Union Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan has said that the Centre will consider the state's demand to raise its borrowing limit.
"... the demand of Kerala for enhancing (its borrowing limit) from 3 per cent to 4.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) will be looked into by the Central government," he said at a State-Level Bankers' Committee meet here on Wednesday.
The Minister, on a visit to flood-ravaged Kerala to review relief and rehabilitation measures taken by banks and insurance companies, said that the Centre would provide all necessary assistance to Kerala.
"All public and private insurance companies have been instructed to quickly process and expedite settlement of all claims arising out of floods," he said.
With the allocation of Rs 214 crore this fiscal, the state government has a total of Rs 562.45 crore in the State Disaster Response Fund at its disposal, he added.
The Minister said that further fund requirement will be decided after a memorandum on losses is submitted by the state. The Kerala government has said that it is preparing a new report.
"Based on the memorandum, the Centre will send a team to study the situation before taking a decision on the matter," Radhakrishnan said.
Nearly 191 bank branches and 179 ATMs were made functional, and steps are being taken to make the remaining functional as early as possible, he said.
To give relief to the people, the Minister said, the government has waived charges for services like issuance of duplicate passbooks, deposit receipts and charges for not maintaining minimum balance.
Soiled and defective notes will be exchanged at all bank branches. He pointed out that the government has also extended fresh consumption loans of up to Rs 10,000 on need basis and a moratorium on agricultural and MSME loans for one year in Kerala.
The Centre has given all possible assistance to Kerala under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direction and has provided required food grains and medicines, Radhakrishnan said.
The Centre is totally sympathetic to Kerala and the Prime Minister has asked the Ministries concerned to consider the state's demands, he added.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
