BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initially sanction five lakh special houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) for the cyclone affected people of Odisha.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Patnaik reiterated the request of the State Government for waiver of the permanent waitlist (PWL) criterion for allocation of houses to beneficiaries and also consider a Centre-State fund sharing pattern of 90:10 as a special case.
Patnaik said, as the rainy season is approaching and the monsoon is likely to reach Odisha around June 10, the state government has decided to issue work order from June 1, 2019, keeping in view the urgency to provide pucca houses to the affected people, in anticipation of the approval of the Centre.
Thanking the Centre for the support to the state to effectively manage the extremely severe cyclone Fani and its aftermath, the chief minister said while the people of the affected districts have gone through immense hardship, the loss of shelter has been a devastating experience. The state government is undertaking a detailed house damage assessment which will be completed shortly, he said and added that the exact number of houses damaged completely or substantially will be known after the survey.
The chief minister, however, said according to preliminary estimation, about five lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 affected districts with the major loss occurring in Puri district.
The Prime Minister had made an aerial survey of the affected areas on May 6 to take stock of the situation. A presentation was also made by the state government for the Prime Minister highlighting the dire need for building disaster resilient housing along the coastal belt of Odisha vulnerable to cyclonic storms.