Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday submitted an interim memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an assistance of Rs 17,000 crore and reiterated the demand for according special category State(SCS) status to Odisha in view of it being a victim of frequent natural calamities.
While Rs 10,000 crore was sought for disaster-proof energy infrastructure in coastal areas, Rs 7,000 crore is required for construction of houses damaged by cyclone “Fani”, Patnaik said.
Justifying the often repeated demand, Patnaik said the State faced Cyclone Phailin in 2013, followed by Hudhud in 2014, an acute drought in 2015 and Cyclone Titli in 2018 and now ‘Fani’. Such calamities have hit the State’s economic backbone which can only be healed to certain extent if it gets a special category status.
Emphasising that Odisha has set “global standard” in saving lives of people during calamities, Patnaik said, “Now we should work for setting global standard in disaster resilience infrastructure.”