Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded the relief package for the area to be converted into a grant. In her letter she said that the people of Wayanad deserve every possible assistance and support to pull themselves out of the terrible misfortune.
"I urge you to consider their plight with compassion. It is my earnest request to you to convert the relief package into a grant and extend the time period for its implementation. This will help them to begin rebuilding their lives. It will also reassure them that the future holds some measure of promise and hope," the Wayanad MP wrote.
Gandhi said that it is clear that Wayanad district desperately needs support, adding that its people are resilient and brave, yet it is impossible for them to overcome this catastrophe without decisive financial and infrastructural support from both, the State and Central Governments.
"Unfortunately, the rehabilitation process is progressing at a painful pace. This has only increased their agony and compounded the psychological turmoil they are experiencing as their future remains uncertain. After continuous urging from the M.P's of Kerala, the central government has recently announced a relief package of 529.50 crore for the victims of the devastation. Apart from the fact of its inadequacy, it is unprecedented that the package comes with two conditions: first that the funds shall be disbursed, not as a grant as is the norm, but as a loan, second, that they should be spent in their entirety by the 31st of March 2025. These conditions are not only immensely unfair, they display a shocking lack of sensitivity towards the people of Chooralmala and Mundakkai who have suffered such shattering losses," the Congress MP said.