Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for taking up relief and restoration works of immediate nature.
He also requested the Centre for special allocation of 57,131 houses under the PMAY scheme in view of the damage rendered by the severe cyclonic storm Titli in different districts of the state.
“We have submitted a Preliminary Memorandum to the Government of India estimating the requirement of funds as Rs 2770.28 crores and seeking central assistance of Rs 2014.09 crores from the National Disaster Response Fund over and above the funds available in the State Disaster Response Fund for the year 2018-19,” he further wrote.
Naveen mentioned about Gajapati being the worst affected among the 17 districts, battered by the storm and the subsequent flood.
The cyclone made the landfall at Palasa of Andhra Pradesh near Gopalpur of Ganjam district in Odisha on October 11.
“Besides, the cyclone and floods, a massive landslide occurred in Mahendragiri hill which completely destroyed one village namely Baraghara under Gangabada G.P of Gajapati district. As many as 57 persons lost their lives in different districts and 10 persons are reported missing due to landslides, wall collapse and drowning. About 60.11 lakh people have been affected,” he added.
The Chief Minister said that all possible precautionary measures were taken after Met department issued cyclone warning. “However, IMD, Bhubaneswar, upgraded the warning to a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm at 9.45 AM on 10th October. All efforts were focused on evacuation in the coastal areas since the landfall was predicted on early morning of 11th October, which was only few hours away. Due to the intensive mobilization of administrative machinery, people living in low lying areas and in kutcha house were shifted to safe shelters and all arrangements were made for food, lighting, drinking water, sanitation and health facilities. During the few hours before midnight, about 3.00 lakh people were evacuated. 14 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 26 teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and all the Fire Service Team were prepositioned in the likely affected districts. Since the prediction of IMD was meant for a number of districts apart from the worst affected districts of Ganjam, Gajapati and Rayagada, we had to make wide deployment of our resources,” he further said.
He also wrote about the extensive damage to both private and public properties. A total of 57.131 private houses have been damaged and standing crops in about 2.73 lakh hectares of land have destroyed. “The damage to the electrical infrastructure in Ganjam and Gajapati districts has been immense. Also, extensive damage of roads in rural and urban areas has occurred. These need to be repaired on an urgent basis,” he added.
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