Cyclone Jawad Caused Damage To Standing Crops In Odisha: Central Team

Bhubaneswar: The six-member Central team which is in Odisha to assess damages caused in Cyclone Jawad, discussed about the damages with senior officers of the state at a high-level meeting in Lok Seva Bhawan.

The team, led by a Joint Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs,  Saurav Ray, toured Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Jajpur and Kendrapada districts which were impacted by the cyclone.

At the meeting which was attended by Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra , Development Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena apprised by the state government on the damages caused by the cyclone.

Though there were no major damages to the electrical infrastructures and buildings, the extremely heavy rainfall caused damage to the standing crops, particularly paddy in the affected areas.

In the wrap-up meeting, Odisha government officials apprised  the Central team that all the ripen crop could not be harvested and collected within a short span of time and many major crops were nearing the ripen stage.

Secretary Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Suresh Kumar Bashistha informed that besides kharif crops, other vegetable crops were also damaged.

Development Commissioner said “Odisha’s climatic condition is also not conducive for late rabi crop as the temperature starts growing by mid February”.

As per an eye estimate it was found that standing crop on more than 5.78 lakh hectares in around 131 blocks of 12 districts were severely damaged.

Ray was of the view that the famers who suffered loss needed governmental support and assistance.

Dr Man Singh, Ministry of Agriculture; Dr Manas Kumar Sinha, Ministry of Fisheries; RB Kaul, Ministry of Finance; Shaswat Mohapatra, Ministry of Road Transport and Poonam Jain, Ministry of Power were other members of the team.