Odisha declares 8 disasters as state specific disasters

In a major relief to victims of natural calamities, Odisha govenrment today declared eight different disasters as State Specific Disasters (SSD) within the local context for which expenditure on relief measures will be available from State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF).
The disasters like lightning, heat wave, whirlwind, tornado, heavy rain, boat accident and snakebite were declared as state specific disasters, according to a notification issued by the office of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) here.
"People affected by these local disasters with the exception of heat wave will now get some relief assistance as prescribed for 12 other disasters approved by the government of India under the State Disaster Response Fund and National Disaster Response Fund," said deputy SRC Pravat Ranjan Mohapatra.

Earlier, the relief were being given for the victims of avalanches, cyclone, cloud burst, drought, earth quake, tsunami, fire, flood, hailstorm, landslide, pest attack and frost and cold wave as approved by the centre.
While the amount of ex-gratia for seven state specific disasters would be Rs 4 lakh per deceased person, the scale of ex-gratia assistance for death due to sunstroke will however be Rs 50,000 per deceased person, Mohapatra said.
Earlier, the victim families of lightning were getting only Rs 1.5 lakh from the chief minister's relief Fund (CMRF) and family members of the heat wave victims got Rs 10,000 from the state government.

The state government had been constantly pursuing the matter with the centre since long for declaration of 'lightning' and 'heat wave' as disasters for funding of relief expenditure for the said disasters from the State Disaster Response Fund.