Q. Your friend Umakant hails from a village whose surrounding areas were submerged due to floods during the monsoon last year. Government assisted the affected people by giving them cash doles to purchase household effects, seeds to replant crop and cash to compensate for loss of standing crop. Umakant had his house site on high ground and suffered no loss of personal effects. Luckily, his agricultural land being relatively far away from the flooded river escaped the ravages of the flood. Normally, government machinery is unable to thoroughly assess the damage suffered by each individual family. As a result, people take advantage by making extravagant and often fictitious claims. Umakant has made false claims like others in the village. Question What will be an appropriate response to Umakant’s conduct? Umakant should only have made genuine claims. It is for the government agencies to ensure that no false claims are entertained. When everyone is cheating the system, Umakant cannot do anything singly; he should join the crowd. Governments provide relief whenever natural calamities occur for winning cheap popularity. They should scale down the benefits.