BHUBANESWAR: The state government will follow a squad approach for assessment of damage done to houses and standing crops by Cyclone Dana to enable timely disbursement of relief assistance to affected households and farmers as per the norms of the state and national disaster response funds.
Sharing the government decision on post-flood damage assessment and relief measures on Sunday, deputy chief minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo said, damage assessment of private properties will be done immediately after the floodwaters recede.
“We are committed to a thorough and swift assessment of damage to private properties across various sectors. Composite teams will be deployed to ensure all affected households receive timely assistance as per SDRF/NDRF norms,” he said.
Singh Deo, also the minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, said the teams will comprise officials of different departments such as Revenue and Disaster Management, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment (including Horticulture), Fisheries and Animal Resources Development, and Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts.
Geo-tagged and time-stamped photographs of damaged houses, crop area and crop area under sand cast will be taken during assessment and preserved in the case records. In case of house damage, photo of the beneficiary concerned would be taken along with the damaged house in the background.
While considering sanction of house-building assistance (HBA), the houses constructed under various schemes of government would be taken into consideration as baseline information. If the beneficiaries under different housing schemes are considered for HBA, the scheme under which the house was constructed would be specifically mentioned.
In case of fully damaged houses or those severely inundated for more than two days, the affected households are to be provided with assistance for clothing and utensils in addition to the prescribed HBA.
Assessment of crop loss would be carried out through field enquiry by the joint teams of Revenue and Agriculture departments to ascertain if damage is to the extent of 33 per cent or above. Assistance for desilting of agricultural land (where thickness of sand/silt deposit is more than 3 inches) will be provided to affected farmers as per government norms.
The squads have been advised to send a soft copy of the report to the office of the special relief commissioner. Supervising officers will be deployed to conduct test checks for ensuring the veracity of the damage assessment and maintain separate records. Singh Deo said the teams have been asked to keep a record of affected farmers with their bank accounts ready for disbursement of agriculture input subsidy immediately after the approval of the damage assessment reports.