Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday asked officials to complete repair and reconstruction of infrastructure damaged during Phailin and provide assistance to the affected people by the stipulated time.
The October 12 last Phailin and subsequent floods had badly hit as many as 18 districts causing large scale damage to road communications, houses, official buildings, power infrastructure and crop land.
Reviewing the progress of the reconstruction and restoration work at a meeting at the State Secretariat, Chief Minister Patnaik directed the Energy department to repair all the lift Irrigation points and ensure energizing the points by January 15 next in view of the current Rabi season to facilitate a good crop.
later, talking to newsmen, Energy Secretary P K Jena said out of around 2,000 lI points, repair of 11 lI points had already been completed and hoped that the rest would be completed by deadline.
He said the State Government had already submitted a draft Detailed Project Report (DPR) for availing Rs 800 crore loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop cyclone resilient power infrastructure in Gopalpur, Brahmapur and Chhatrapur towns. He said the final DPR would be submitted soon.
The Chief Minister also directed the Water Resource Department and the Rural Development Department to complete all the river and canal embankments and ensure permanent restoration of all RD roads by March 31 next. Besides, he also told the RD authorities to complete permanent restoration of the damaged RD roads.
The CM laid stress on completion of construction of new class rooms in case of fully damaged class rooms both in elementary and high schools before
the beginning of the next academic session.
He directed the Agriculture department to draw a plan for undertaking re-plantation of horticultural crops and the Cooperation department to plan for re-plantation and new plantation of sugarcane crops, besides sanctioning farm loans to the farmers during Rabi season.
Patnaik also told the Soil Conservation and Horticulture authorities to initiate joint measures to revive the cashew plantation in Ganjam district. They were advised to utilize required funds under the MGNREGS.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to expedite and complete the distribution of house building advance to affected families, assistance to
fishermen towards their damaged boats and fishing nets and also expedite
the assessment of crop loss and distribution of farm loan to the affected farmers to undertake agricultural activity during the current Rabi season, official sources said.