Odisha CM Announces 7-Day Relief In Flood-Hit Districts

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday announced relief for the people in the three flood-affected districts of Odisha for seven days.

Presiding over a high-level review meeting on the flood situation at the State Secretariat here, the Chief Minister directed the departments concerned to provide Rs 60 and Rs 45 daily as relief to the middle-aged persons and children below 12 years respectively in the flood-hit districts for seven days.

Besides, he also directed the Agriculture and Animal Resources Development department to provide free treatment and immunisation of the domestic animals in these areas. The Public Health and Engineering department was directed to ensure the supply of purified drinking water to the people.

The Chief Minister directed the collectors of the flood-affected districts to submit a detailed report on the damage caused by the flood, within a week.

Present at the meeting, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said about 7.5 lakh people of 903 villages in 17 blocks and four urban local bodies (ULBs) of Bhadrak, Jajpur and Kendrapara districts have been affected by the flood while about 50,000 hectares of paddy fields have been damaged.

He further said that about 40,000 people have been shifted to safer places and provided with cooked food while 90 metric tonnes of cattle feed have been provided in the flood-affected areas.

Among others, Revenue and Disaster Management minister Maheswar Mohanty, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Development Commissioner and principal secretaries of Water Resources, Agriculture, and Fisheries and Animal Husbandry were present at the meeting.