Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-05-17

Relief Measures to be adopted for the urgent disaster situation arisen throughout the Island due to adverse weather conditions

- The heavy rains, winds and the landslides which prevailed in the Island during the previous days have affected 18 districts. According to reports as of 2016-05-16, 128,428 members of 31,062 families have been severely affected and as a result several people have died and several others have been reported missing. It is also reported that 12 houses totally and 201 houses partially, have been damaged. The welfare centres established island-wide by the National Disaster Management Services Centre are 104 and 77,265 persons belonging to 16,968 families take shelter in them. Providing of facilities including cooked food to them have already commenced. Under the National Insurance Programme for Natural Disasters implemented with effect from 2016-04-01, Rs.20 million has been granted to the National Disaster Management Centre through the National Insurance Trust Fund (NITF) and the activities pertaining to the distribution of money required to provide relief as per the requests made by the District Secretaries of the Districts where the disastrous situations exist are also being carried out.

Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, the Minister of Disaster Management, to increase the Rs.150/- provided to a person for cooked meals per day during an urgent disaster situation up to Rs.225/- and to allocate additional provision to provide relief for matters which are not covered under the present insurance scheme, was approved by the Cabinet.