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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Sikkim officially declared “Disaster Affected State”

GANGTOK, 28 Nov: Sikkim has now been officially declared as a “Disaster Affected State”. This was notified by the State government on 21 November, 2011 in view of the damages caused by the earthquake of 18 September and has been done so with immediate effect.
Sources inform that the reason behind this move to declare the State as a “Disaster Affected State” is to avail soft loans and other facilities from the various banks here as well as source funds from international funding agencies such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. This is a requirement stipulated as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines.

These banks and international agencies had been approached by the State government following the large scale damages to infrastructure during the earthquake and to avail funds for rebuilding efforts. Sources inform that one of the conditions that a particular region has to fulfill in order to avail such loans is that it has to be declared a disaster affected region; in the case of Sikkim the state had to be notified as a disaster affected state.
The State government had taken the initiative to approach private banks here to assist those people affected by the earthquake, especially those who have taken house loans etc. On 04 November, 2011, the Chief Secretary along with Additional Chief Secretary, R Ongmu, held a special meeting with all the banks in the state- 26 in all including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) - during which grant of soft loans and extending moratorium period for EMI’s to the earthquake victims was discussed.
It was reported by NOW! at the time that for the State to be eligible for such soft loans for the stated reason to assist the earthquake affected people, the state had to be declared a natural calamity affected state which is as per the guidelines of the RBI.
The assistance from banks pertains especially to those who had taken loans for the construction of houses but which now have been damaged by the earthquake thereby posing a danger that they would default on their monthly installments or EMI. The banks had agreed to allow more time for the repayment of these and also with further soft loans for the rebuilding process as well.
Apart from those with damaged houses also discussed was the possibility of providing Consumption loans to farmers, self employed and other victims who had been affected by the earthquake.

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