Union Home Minister Amit Shah has approved additional Central assistance under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to six states, which were affected by natural disasters, cyclone, floods and landslides during the year.

The NDRF has approved an additional Central assistance of Rs 4,381.88 crore to six states – Odisha, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Sikkim.

For cyclone Amphan, Rs 2,707.77 crore has been approved for West Bengal and Rs 128.23 crore for Odisha.

Maharashtra gets Rs 268.69 crore for cyclone Nisarga.

For floods and landslides during the southwest monsoon, Rs 577.84 crore has been approved for Karnataka, Rs 611.61 crore for Madhya Pradesh, and Rs 87.84 crore for Sikkim.

In the aftermath of the cyclone Amphan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the affected states of West Bengal and Odisha on May 22, 2020. As announced by the Prime Minister, financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to West Bengal and Rs 500 crore to Odisha was released in advance on May 23 for immediate relief activities in these states.

The Prime Minister had also announced Rs two lakh ex-gratia for the next of kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 for the injured, which was over and above the ex-gratia provided through the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and the NDRF.

For all the six states, the Central government had deputed Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) immediately after the calamities, without waiting for the receipt of Memorandum from the affected state governments..