New Delhi: In view of the floods ravaging the state, the Punjab government on Monday declared it a natural calamity in the state. The decision was taken during a meeting held to review the preparedness to tackle floods in the state.

Chief Minister Amarinder  has asked the Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) to officially declare the situation a natural calamity with the village as a unit to help the affected people get insurance claims against the loss suffered by them.

The CM asked the Finance Department to immediately clear Rs 100 crore pending against previous crop/harvest, an official release said.

This would also help the banks, especially the state cooperative banks, to restructure and defer the recovery of crop loans from the farmers, as per the norms of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Amarinder Singh, who had earlier in the day visited the flood-hit areas in Ropar to make an on-the-ground assessment of the situation, also directed all the Deputy Commissioners, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and all other state government departments and entities to closely monitor the flood situation in close coordination with the police with a view to providing not only expeditious rescue and relief operations, but also to take pro-active preventive measures.

Compensation as per the prescribed norms should be disbursed expeditiously in case of death to the next of kin forthwith, the Chief Minister directed, while also ordering temporary subsistence allowance to the migrant labours, who may otherwise not be covered in the existing relief norms under the state policy, to be paid out of the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.