Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to provide an advance Central assistance to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to undertake immediate relief and restoration works in the 17 districts of the State, which have been affected by the twin calamities — Phailin and floods.
“In order to take relief and restoration works of an immediate nature, I would request you to release an advance of Rs 1,000 crore over and above the corpus of Rs 523 crore available in the State Disaster Response Fund for 2013-14,” said Patnaik, in a letter to the PM.
Stating that this would help the State in meeting the immediate requirement, the Chief Minister said, “A detailed report in the form of memorandum shall be presented soon after assessment of the damage." He said while immediate assistance was required to repair about four lakh Kutcha and semi pucca houses, which were destroyed completely or partially due to the cyclone and floods, extensive damage caused to the power systems in the worst-hit Ganjam district required more than Rs 900 crore to ensure full restoration of the power system in the district.
He pointed out that the cyclonic storm Phailin and the subsequent floods had caused damage and destruction in 17 districts of Odisha. Out of this, Ganjam, where the cyclone made its landfall, had been the worst affected and there had been extensive damage to public and private property and agricultural crops. While 21 persons lost their lives in the cyclone, seven others perished in the floods as per the latest official data.
"I would like to highlight the extensive damage caused to the power systems in Ganjam district, which alone will require more than Rs 900 crore to be fully restored. A major grid station has been devastated. Electrical infrastructure right from the extra high tension to the consumer level has been severely damaged throughout the district. This requires immediate restoration for which I have already sought for the support of the Government of India, particularly the PSUs under the Ministry of Power such as Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIl), NTPC and National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC),” he added.
Patnaik mentioned in his letter that initial reports indicated that almost 400,000 Kutcha and semi-pucca houses had been completely or partially damaged as a result of the cyclone and floods causing untold sufferings to the residents. "These need to be repaired on an urgent basis for which immediate assistance is required,” he said.
“Since flood waters are yet to recede, we have not yet assessed the full damage to the standing crops, but the damage is quite extensive covering over 6 lakh hectares," Patnaik pointed out. The Chief Minister in his letter highlighted the State Government’s achievement in the pre-calamity preparation and said that all possible precautionary measures were taken before the event to ensure zero casualty.
About one million persons were shifted in the 36 hours preceding the landfall of the cyclone which was the main reason for the low casualty figure, he said. However, he had words of praise for the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for its “extremely accurate predictions” that helped evacuation operations. Besides, Patnaik also patted the ODRAF, NDRAF units, CRPF, OSAP and the Army deployed for road clearance and search and rescue operations.