Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced relief within 24 hours to Phailin affected people of the State after he chaired a high-level meeting with Ministers and top officials of the State here on Tuesday.
The CM, who returned on Monday afternoon after his week-long trip to Mumbai, also lauded the preparations done by the State Government in the wake of Phailin and said that it was because of proper homework there was minimal loss in Jharkhand due to the cyclone.
"Those who have lost their cattle, crops or any other thing will be give immediate relief within 24 hours. I have instructed the concerned departments to provide compensation first. Paper work or other formalities can be done later," Soren said.
"In today's meeting, we found that relief work was going on a full pace across the state in affected areas. However, we have learnt that situation is not worse except few incidents that took place. We have also learnt that few houses got damaged and four persons were killed in the last couple of days. Four persons have been reported to killed are from Giridih, Khunti, Dhanbad and Bokaro among them three lost their lives due to lightning and one person died due to destruction of his house."
Though Jharkhand did not witness as mush devastation as it was presumed, the CM said that the worst affected areas in Jharkhand were Jamshedpur, Ghatshila, Chaibasa and some part of Dhanbad. During the continuous rainfall nearly 200 houses were partially damaged in Dumka district, mainly from Raneshwar (27), Shikaripara (72), Jarmundi (30) and Masliya (36) blocks. Some houses were also damaged in Kathikund block of the district.
The CM further said that the two teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) were camping at Dhanbad and Jamshedpur to assist rescue operation there. As many as 7,000 people were evacuated and brought to safer places from across the State, he said.
"We have been getting regular updates from the MET department which says that speedy winds were less likely but rains may continue for a couple of days more. So we have instructed concerned officials to keep a close watch on the water levels of all major rivers and dams across the State," Soren said.
The CM also informed that several departments, including health, Agriculture, Power, Disaster Management, Water Resources among others, which have been already engaged in relief work, have been given special instructions to expedite the relief process.
The health department has been instructed to be alert for Diarrhoea, Snake bite etc. Medicines have to be made available till Panchayat levels and the accessibility to the medicines must be made smooth as per CM's instructions. He also instructed the Power department to ensure that electricity supplies get back to normalcy within a week.
Earlier on Saturday evening, the effect of Phailin began in Jharkhand with continuous rains and speedy winds. A large number of trees and their branches fell on roads damaging overhead electricity wires and small huts/mud houses. On Sunday, October 13 there was a continuous rainfall for the whole day and the State capital remained without power for about 18 hours. later power was restored in some areas.
According to the IMD office, Patna Jharkhand received a rainfall of 123 mm as against expected rainfall of 5.2 mm during the last 48 hours. Bokaro received maximum rainfall of 221.1 mm.