The Ministry of the Interior moved to patch up an embarrassing rift between it and Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday evening after the two voiced conflicting positions on Taipei City Government's policy on earthquake compensation.
The ministry issued a statement at 7pm yesterday, saying, "The Ministry of the Interior will abide by the decision of Premier Yu Shyi-kun to assist Taipei City in dealing with all matters related to the granting of compensation as quickly as possible and in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations."
The statement ended a day of uncertainty on the issue.
Asked by reporters in the morning for his reaction to Taipei City Government's decision Sunday to pay compensation to victims of Sunday's earthquake far in excess of that offered by the central government, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said,"Taipei City Government is granting more to its citizens, just because it is much wealthier than other counties and cities."
"We have decided to postpone our subventions for Taipei City's community activities," Yu added.
In the meantime, however, unbeknown to minister Yu, Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (
Minister Yu had not attended yesterday's emergency Cabinet meeting as he had been asked to report on the pensions scheme to the Legislative Yuan's Environment and Social Welfare Committee.
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-Jeou (
The Executive Yuan decided Sunday evening at an emergency meeting called in response to that afternoon's devastating earthquake, however, to pay NT$200,000 per deceased victim plus a NT$100,000 sympathy payment.
Responding to Minister Yu's comments, Mayor Ma defended the city, saying compensation amounts were set by President Chen Shui-bian (
"They have been applied in the case of other disasters, such as that caused by Typhoon Ribo [in October 1998]," Ma added, as he addressed reporters after yesterday's Cabinet meeting.
The Ministry of the Interior made no further comment until the release of its statement in the evening.
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