The State Government on Wednesday urged the Union Rural Development (URD) Ministry to sanction special packages under two schemes, Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), to ensure long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation in rural areas that have suffered colossal damages due to the Phailin and the resultant floods.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in two separate letters to URD Minister Jairam Ramesh sought to allot at least three lakh Pucca dwelling units under IAY for rehabilitation of the families rendered homeless due to Phailin and also urged a special package of Rs 500 crore for the year 2013-14 under the MGNREGA. This is over and above the Rs 4242.41 crore Central assistance sought for undertaking restoration of the damaged infrastructure in 18 districts.
Stating that Phailin has rendered lakhs of people homeless and “provision of Pucca houses to these people has assumed urgency, I would request you to consider allotting at least three lakh additional houses under IAY,” Patnaik said in his letter. The CM has also requested Ramesh to relax the rule and allow the Government to engage private or Government agencies for construction of the houses.
Over four lakh houses have been damaged in Phailin.He has also urged the Union Minister to allot IAY houses to deserving poor people left out in the 1997 BPl list and from the household survey of 2002.
Patnaik has also sought a special package of Rs 500 crore labour budget under the MGNREGA for immediate restoration of private property and public utilities hit by the cyclone. “The special package should be sanctioned over and above the budget already approved for 2013-14,” he said.
Requesting Ramesh to relax certain norms of the MGNREG for taking up speedy restoration works, Patnaik said the State should be allowed to maintain 60:40 labour to material ratio at district level instead of Gram Panchayat and block level to facilitate large-scale construction of durable assests.
The maximum permissible 100 days of wage employment be hiked to 150 days for 2013-14 in the affected districts, Patnaik said.The CM has also urged Ramesh to provide a special grant of Rs 35 crore for replacement of IT equipment damaged in the cyclone.