Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday had a telephonic conversation with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and discussed immediate release of financial assistance for undertaking repair and restoration work in districts affected by cyclone ‘Titli’.
Singh assured that the amount would be released immediately.
Notably, the Chief Minister had written to the Union Minister regarding this on December 13.
In the letter to Rajnath, Naveen said, “The very severe cyclonic storm ‘Titli’ of October 2018 with associated flood and landslides had severely affected a vast population of about 60.31 lakh in 128 blocks under 17 districts of Odisha.”
The state government provided prompt assistance to the affected population and immediate restoration of the damaged infrastructure and services within the shortest possible time, he mentioned.
He also said that the state government had submitted a memorandum to the Government of India seeking central assistance of Rs 2023.13 crore against the total of Rs 2779.32 crore for relief and restoration measures.
“In a letter to the Prime Minister of India on October 18, I had requested for release of an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore pending final decision of the high level committee on the memorandum. The inter-ministerial central team has already made an on the spot assessment of the damages during first week of November, 2018. However, we have not received any assistance, so far, from the Government of India,” said the Chief Minister.
In the meantime, an amount of Rs 1,689.13 crore has been released for relief and restoration measures, exhausting the entire amount available in State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and hence, assistance from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) is urgently required for replenishing the SDRF and undertaking the remaining work, he added.
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