Duare Tran drive: Over 20K applications received on first day

Kolkata: In a major success in reaching out to the people at their doorstep to help them get the state government's compensation for the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas, more than 20,000 applications have been received on the first day of its Duare Tran outreach programme.

The Duare Tran (relief at doorstep) programme has been carried out in five cyclone affected districts – North and South 24-Parganas, East and West Midnapore and Howrah – to ensure that not even a single genuinely affected person gets deprived of the state's government's assistance. "Today is the first day of the Duare Tran programme. We have set up camps in five districts where we have received 15,000 applications till 3 pm," said Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a meeting with representatives of chambers of commerce at Nabanna Sabhaghar.

Sources in the state secretariat later stated that the number of applicants went up to as many as 20,393 till 7 pm on Thursday. It is learnt that total 122 camps were set up and it includes four in Hooghly and Birbhum where some areas were affected by tornedo during the cyclone. Three camps at Hooghly's Chinsurah and one at Birbhum's Murarui.

The preliminary estimation of the damage caused by the cyclone was of above Rs 20,000 crore. The Chief Minister has already sanctioned an initial financial assistance of Rs 1000 crore and the process to receive applications would continue till June 18.

Subsequently, the verification of the same will be undertaken from June 19 to 30 and disbursement of compensation by transferring the amount directly to the bank accounts of beneficiaries will take place from July 1 to 8.

The state has already announced the quantum of compensation for various types of damages.