The Odisha government today sought additional central assistance of Rs 1,590.09 crore from the Government of India to complete relief and restoration measures in view of the recent flash floods induced by low pressure rains.
Special Relief Commissioner Pradipta K Mohapatra today presented a detailed memorandum to the visiting central team led by Rashmi Goel, joint secretary, Union ministry of home affairs.
The additional assistance is over and above the aid of Rs 4,242.41 crore which the state had sought from the Centre recently to undertake relief and rehabilitation work in the aftermath of the Phailin cyclonic storm and the subsequent floods. With this, the combined funding assistance sought by the state government for the cyclone and floods in the first phase as well as the second spell of floods now stands at Rs 5,832.50 crore.
Due to the second spell of floods between October 21 and 26, the state government has assessed the cost of repair of roads and bridges at Rs 881.56 crore, house building assistance (Rs 241.66 crore), repair of irrigation works (Rs 112.24 crore), repair of community assets owned by panchayats (Rs 187.25 crore) and clothing & utensils (Rs 59.42 crore).
Heavy incessant rainfall during October 21-26 has affected 13 districts- Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh and Puri. The floods have impacted 8.13 million people in 10,722 villages. The official death toll has been pegged at 15.
Goel is leading a team of 11 officials drawn from eight ministries. The team will visit flood hit areas in Ganjam, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Puri districts before wrapping up with talks with top ranked state officers on October 31.
The team would hold discussions with the district administration and MLAs of the flood hit districts.
Meanwhile, people of 18 villages of Purushottampur, Chhatrapur, Ganjam and Sheragada blocks in worst hit Ganjam district are still trapped in flood waters.
The Ganjam administration has prepared a preliminary report on damage caused by the two recent natural calamities- cyclone and the second spell of floods. According to the report, 12380 fishermen families have been affected while 11089 boats and 4080 fishing nets have been damaged. While the cyclone affected a crop area of 293,900 hectares (ha), another 51566 ha has been hit due to the floods in the second phase.
