Bhubaneswar: To seek an interim assistance with the purpose of relief-and-restoration work, the Odisha government requested the center on Thursday to release Rs. 1,000 crore. The government aims to provide relief for up to 17 districts devasted due to last week’s Cyclone Titli and the subsequent flood resulting in the loss of about Rs. 2,765 crore and affected 60.11 lakh people.

The cyclone and floods just did not bring severe damage to infrastructure, but also claimed 57 lives in the South Eastern state, officials said.

“I would request you to kindly consider the grave situation in the state on account of the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm ‘Titli’ and its associated impacts and request you to please release an interim assistance of Rs. 1,000 crore to the state to enable taking up relief and restoration works of immediate nature,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Apart from this, Mr. Patnaik also mentioned in the letter that by considering the fact about 57,131 houses getting damaged, the Government of India should take into consideration of allocating specially of the same number of houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

While noting the fact that the government of the state had already submitted a preliminary memorandum to the centre by pegging the funds required at Rs. 2,770.28, Mr. Patnaik said, “We are seeking central assistance of Rs. 2014.09 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund, over and above the funds available in the State Disaster Response Fund for the year 2018-19.”

Apart from the loss of human lives, there have reports of extensive damage to both the private as well as public properties, Mr. Patnaik said and further added that the standing crop on the area of about 2.73 lakh hectares of land had also undergone massive damage.

According to the chief minister, the electrical infrastructure suffered a huge damage in the districts of Ganjam and Gajapati and he said that the roads were had turned very bad in rural as well as urban areas.

He added that all these were required to be repaired on an urgent basis.

Talking about the efforts put by the government, Mr. Patnaik said that all the resources were utilized upto the fullest extent to tackle cyclone “Titli” and also the resultant flood. The Chief Minister also said that due to the natural calamities had caused huge damage and destruction to the 17 districts and affected about 60.11 lakh people.

“A non-coastal district, namely Gajapati, has been the worst affected. Besides the cyclone and the flood, a massive landslide occurred in the Mahendragiri hills, which completely destroyed one village, namely Baraghara, under Gangabada GP of Gajapati district,” the chief minister said, adding that a total of 57 people lost their lives in different districts and 10 were reportedly missing after the landslides, wall-collapse incidents and drowning.

The districts of Gajapati and Ganjam districts were visited by the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who hails from the state of Odisha. During his visit to the districts, Union Minister expressed concern over the condition of the people even eight days after the cyclone hit the coast.

Unhappy over the manner in which the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in the state undertook the relief-and-restoration activities, he said, “The government should wake up from its slumber and swing into action to mitigate the miseries of the affected people.”

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