The Odisha government asked the Centre Thursday to release an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for relief-and-restoration work in 17 districts as last week's Cyclone Titli and the subsequent flood caused a loss of about Rs 2,765 crore and affected 60.11 lakh people.
Apart from a severe damage to infrastructure, the natural calamities had claimed 57 lives in the state, officials said.
"I would request you to kindly consider the grave situation in the state on account of the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm 'Titli' and its associated impacts and request you to please release an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to the state to enable taking up relief and restoration works of immediate nature," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This apart, Patnaik mentioned in the letter that keeping in view the fact that 57,131 houses were damaged, the Government of India should consider a special allocation of the same number of houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Noting that the state government had already submitted a preliminary memorandum to the Centre, pegging the funds required at Rs 2,770.28 crore, Patnaik said, "We are seeking central assistance of Rs 2014.09 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund, over and above the funds available in the State Disaster Response Fund for the year 2018-19."