FAMILIES OF DUST STORM VICTIMS TO GET ₹4 LAKH EACH

The state government will give a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of 23 people killed in the dust storm on Wednesday night, industry minister Rajpal Singh Shekhawat announced on Friday.

The injured will be given ₹60,000 to Rs2 lakh, depending on the extent of injury, said Shekhawat, while addressing a press conference in Jaipur. He said most deaths and injuries had occurred due to house collapses.

He said dust storm is not a notified disaster, but the state government has included it as a special calamity in the state disaster relief fund and compensation would be given to the affected people.

The minister said compensation will also be given to those whose huts or houses collapsed or damaged and whose livestock were killed in the calamity.

Fourteen people were killed in Dholpur district and six in Bharatpur district in the dust storm and rains that lashed eastern Rajasthan on Wednesday night.

Shekhawat said a compensation of ₹95,000 will be given for completely destroyed houses, ₹5,200 for partially damaged kachcha houses and ₹4,200 for each hut, he said.

Families losing livestock will be given ₹30,000 per cow or buffalo and ₹3,000 per goat or sheep with a ceiling of ₹90,000 per family.

Hitting out at the Congress, Shekhawat said the party had nothing to do with the people affected by the dust storm, but were making empty statements to get political mileage.

JAIPUR: