The State Government has urged the Centre to initiate steps for facilitating grants from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) for the State, which is facing natural calamities almost every year.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi has written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Secretary Rajiv Gauba in this regard. He mentioned that Odisha needs support in view of Cyclone Fani causing widespread devastation and disrupting socioeconomic fabric of nearly 1.65 crore people recently.
United Nations agencies, World Bank, Asian Development Bank etc are making post-disaster damage and need assessment to facilitate a speedy recovery and reconstruction, informed Padhi. However, the State requires larger funds not only for recovery but for expanding better infrastructure, enhancing institutional capacity and fiscal mechanism to manage the impact of natural disasters in future.
The State needs to be as disaster proof to keep pace with the growth of the rest of the country, added Padhi.
He urged the MHA to initiate action for facilitating grants from the GFDDR by establishing an International Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Recovery at Bhubaneswar.
In the mean time, Disaster Management Secretary and and Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) MD Bishnupada Sethi has urged UN Resident Coordinator in India Reneta Lok Dessallien to consider the proposal of Odisha for such an international centre.
Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had urged the UN agency to set up such a facility in view of the super storms hitting the State often.
This Centre would help in building upon the expertise in disaster management that Odisha has gained in this sector as well as in developing international best practices for their use across the world, said Sethi in his letter to the UN Resident Coordinator.
Sethi too mentioned that the State Government would provide all support for setting up of this centre in Bhubaneswar.