T

he National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) disbursed Rp 7.3 billion (US$567,000) in aid on Wednesday to handle Mount Sinabung evacuees in Karo regency, North Sumatra, who are still staying in evacuation centers.

BNPB'€™s emergency response director Junjungan Tambunan said Karo regency administration had requested the fund and waited for the disbursement for quite a while. The amount, he said, was according to the number of evacuees registered on the regency administration'€™s data.

'€œThe fund will be transferred directly from the BPBD'€™s (regency disaster mitigation agency) bank account to the evacuees'€™. This is done to prevent misappropriation,'€ Tambunan told The Jakarta Post, Wednesday.

He said the fund would be used to rent homes for soon-to-be-relocated evacuees, daily cash aid for those who will return home and as operational expenses to send evacuees home.

Tambunan said his agency had asked Karo BPBD to tell all evacuees to make bank accounts so they could receive the fund directly. He assured the transfer could be started on Wednesday to those who already have bank accounts.

'€œWe want them to receive the aid soon to ease their suffering,'€ said Tambunan, adding that he would arrive in Karo on Thursday to directly monitor the disbursement process and the sending home of evacuees.

Karo BPBD head Subur Tambun confirmed the disbursement of the fund for Mt. Sinabung evacuees, saying that the money had been transferred by the BNPB to his office'€™s account.

Subur said the aid allocated for home renting and cash aid would be delivered starting this week.

Data at the agency showed that there were 1,970 families to be relocated. They came from seven subdistricts located within the red zone between the radius of three and five kilometers from the volcano.

The seven subdistricts included Suka Meriah, Simacem, Bekerah, Gurukinayan, Berastepu, Gamber and Kuta Tonggol.

Evacuees to be sent home consist of 2,443 people or 795 families. They were from Sukanalu and Sigarang-garang subdistricts.

Each of the families to be relocated, according to Subur, would receive Rp 1.8 million monthly to rent a house for six months starting from Jan. 2015.

For cash aid, each family of the evacuees to be sent home would receive Rp 50,000 per day for 60 days.

Last week the Karo regency administration planned to send the 795 families to their respective homes. It was canceled because the cash for work fund had not yet been disbursed by the BNPB.

Following the disbursement of the fund on Wednesday, the plan has been rescheduled for next week.

'€œThis week we will focus on distributing aid to the evacuees. After that we will send them home next week,'€ said Subur, adding that the exact date for sending the evacuees home would be decided during a meeting to be held this week.