Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Thursday declared unseasonal rain, which often causes widespread crop damage, as a state-specific disaster. A proposal in this regard has been approved by Chief Minister Shri Mohan Charan Majhi.
With this, the farmers across the state will be able to get assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for damage caused to crops due to unseasonal rains. A maximum of 10 percent of the annual allocation of SDRF can be utilised for this, an official statement said.
It may be noted that in December 2024, crops were damaged in 22,791 hectares of land in the state due to unseasonal rains and over 6.66 lakh farmers were affected. The Chief Minister had then declared this as a special state disaster and provided assistance of Rs 291 crore to the farmers in the form of agricultural input subsidy.
With the fresh decision of the Chief Minister, unseasonal rains have been permanently declared a state disaster and farmers can be provided assistance from the SDRF for this.
Earlier, altogether eight disasters were been declared as state-specific in Odisha. These were lightning, heatwaves, whirlwinds, tornadoes, heavy rain, boat mishaps, drowning, and snakebites. With the inclusion of unseasonal rain, Odisha now has total of nine state-specific disasters.
These are in addition to the centrally-approved disasters like cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, and floods that also affect the state.
