Reportedly the first tranche of $250 million of the $500 million fund set aside by the World Bank for the Resilient kerala Programme (RKP) to help improve the state's resilience against natural disasters and climate change has been cleared. Furthermore according to a top bank official kerala has become the first Indian state to get this fund, said Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank, india, in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
Ahmad said "The future of india is in the states and hence we decided to invest in state schemes besides concentrating on citizen-centric programs. That's what we have done in the RKP". He added "We will be providing technical assistance to the state for these programs. Besides this, we have an urban service project. Also, the new programs in the pipeline would look into sanitation and solid waste management".
Moreover balakrishna Menon, World Bank india Task Team Leader for the program, said in the RKP they "will not only bring about additional financial resources but also help leverage other development partners and connect the state to lessons from global good practices." Previously, Red Crescent, chapter of Red Cross in uae, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government for providing an assistance of Rs 20 crore in the first phase.
