Gajapati Landslide Deaths Not Due To Cyclone Titli: Minister Surya Patro

Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader and Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Surya Narayan Patro, who had earlier denied media reports regarding casualty in a landslide in Mahendragiri hill of Gajapati district, sang a different tune on Tuesday, attributing the death of 16 persons of Baraghara village to Titli-triggered heavy rain.

“The district administration had evacuated the people living within 60 sq km of the coastal area a day before the very severe cyclonic storm Titli struck. The landfall in the early hours of October 11 triggered extremely heavy rainfall in Gajapati district resulting in a landslide in Mahendragiri hill. From this, it is obvious that there was no death due to the cyclone. Rather it was the heavy rain that caused the landslide and subsequent deaths,” Patro told mediapersons here.

When asked about his earlier statement on the incident, the minister said he had no information regarding the deaths then and it was later confirmed when the media gave away vivid details of the mishap.

Jeering at the media report about the incident two days after the cyclone on October 13, Patro maintained that no such incident had taken place in Gajapati district. “I have spoken to the collector, sub-collector, the district BJD president, my party workers, MLA and ex-MLA and they negated such reports. There may have been some damage to houses and trees uprooted, which are common during the cyclone. The cyclone in the United States this month had killed 172 people and destroyed several houses. Who can stop the onslaught of nature?” the minister had pointed out.

However, he had a loss of face when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik later confirmed the death after an aerial survey of the cyclone-affected districts of Gajapati, Ganjam and Rayagada and extended his deepest condolence to the families whose kin have perished in the tragic disaster.