Chandigarh, Sept. 18 -- The Centre has released the second instalment of Rs.240.80 crore to the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) of Punjab for flood relief.

The sanction was cleared last week by the Union finance ministry's department of expenditure, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement during his visit to flood-hit areas of Punjab that the amount would be released in advance. With this, the central government has so far released Rs.481.80 crore for Punjab this fiscal.

Adding the state's contribution of Rs.160.80 crore, the total SDRF corpus has now reached Rs.642.40 crore. The SDRF is jointly funded by the Centre and states in a 75:25 ratio.

Welcoming the release, Union minister of state Ravneet Singh Bittu said th...