Sangli: Loss of official documents is one of the biggest concerns for those who have lost everything to nature’s fury in Western Maharashtra, Sangli District Collector Abhijit Chaudhary has assured that documents issued by government offices would be duplicated on demand.

“The documents and records at government offices in the flood-affected areas are not lost. Hence, as long as there is a record available with us that a certificate had been issued to a flood-affected person once, we will readily work towards making a duplicate copy of the same available to people, only when they have applied for the same at the respective offices,” Chaudhary said.

Along with their homes and everything else, people have lost their documents, right from their Board examination certificates to the birth, caste and domicile certificates.

While the universities and the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education too have shown initiative towards providing duplicate certificates on demand, Sangli Collector’s Office has also extended its services for the people.

As far as lost Aadhaar cards are concerned, Chaudhary said that teams would be dispatched to villages to conduct the process of re-enrolment and re-issue of Aadhaar cards.

“You might have lost the mobile numbers registered with Aadhaar, but the online Aadhaar number remains, so does the biometric scan. So these teams will be able to help people retrieve their Aadhaar cards too,” the district collector added.

He also stated that once the short term goals of the relief work would be accomplished, the administration would move towards long term solutions with regard to housing issues, infrastructural repairs and so on. The government has already begun surveying the housing conditions and requirements in the flood-affected areas, he added.

Salient points

104 villages in Sangli district were flood affected.

40 pc of the urban area of Sangli was underwater.

Around 88,000 families in the district have been affected by flood. Out of these, around 45,000 are from rural areas of the district.

Around 55,000 families in the district (rural as well as urban) have already received the first installment of the compensation provided by the government in cash. The rest would be covered in the next couple of days.

180 teams are functional across the district to carry out the relief work.

More than 8,000 kits were made by the District Collectorate.