New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha will discuss the Titli cyclone assistance to Odisha by the Centre on Thursday.
An adjournment motion notice to this effect served by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was accepted by the Rajya Sabha chairperson Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday.
Talking to mediapersons here, BJD Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya said the state government had submitted a memorandum to the Centre, seeking assistance of Rs 2023.13 crore against the total requirement of Rs 2779.32 crore for relief and restoration measures. Besides, the Chief Minister in a letter to the Prime Minister on October 18 had requested for release of an interim assistance of Rs 1000 crore pending final decision of the high level committee (HLC) on the memorandum.
“The Centre, which has provided huge flood relief assistance to the Kerala government and the Titli cyclone assistance to the Andhra Pradesh government, has shown gross apathy towards Odisha in providing the post-cyclone relief assistance as per its demand. As against Rs 2023.13 crore demanded by the state government, the Centre has agreed to release only Rs 1023.59 crore. In this connection, I have served an adjournment motion notice on behalf of my party to the Rajya Sabha chairperson for a discussion on this matter. He has accepted the notice and agreed to initiate a discussion in the upper house tomorrow. The adjournment motion notice has been supported by several parties. I hope that the session in the upper house would function normally and take up our issue,” Acharya said.
