Sri Lanka, Dec. 19 -- The initial grant of Rs. 25,000 paid for flood affected families to clean their houses have been paid to 257,000 families out of the total of 493,000 entiled to the payment so far, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said today.

He told Parliament that Rs. 6.4 billion has been paid thus far out of the total allocation of Rs. 17.6 billion.

The Minister said 610,000 families were affected by the cyclone and that 493,000 families are eligible to receive the initial grant of Rs. 25,000.

He said steps will be taken to complete all the payments soon.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Daily Mirror Sri Lanka....