BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sought an interim assistance of `1,000 crore from the Centre to enable Odisha take up relief and restoration works of immediate nature after the very severe cyclonic storm ‘Titli’.“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 release an interim assistance of `1,000 crore to the State to enable taking up relief and restoration works of immediate nature,” the Chief Minister stated in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
Naveen also requested the Centre for special allocation of 57,131 houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in view of the houses damaged during the cyclone and subsequent floods. He said the State Government has submitted a preliminary memorandum to the Centre estimating requirement of `2770.28 crore and seeking Central assistance of `2014.09 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund besides funds available in the State Disaster Response Fund for 2018-19.
Besides the loss of life, there has been extensive damage to both private and public property, the Chief Minister said and added that 57,131 private houses have been damaged and standing crops in about 2.73 hectares suffered.
“The damage to power infrastructure in Ganjam and Gajapati districts is immense. Extensive damage to roads in rural and urban areas has also been reported. These need to be repaired on an urgent basis,” he said.The IMD, Bhubaneswar upgraded the warning to a very severe cyclonic storm at 9.45 am on October 10, Naveen said and added all efforts were focussed on evacuation in the coastal areas since the landfall was predicted on early morning of October 11.
Due to intensive mobilisation of administrative machinery, people living in low lying areas and in kutcha houses were shifted to safety, Naveen said, adding that in a few hours before midnight about three lakh people were evacuated.
Since the prediction of IMD was meant for a number of districts apart from Gajapati, Ganjam and Rayagada, the Government had to make wide deployment of its resources. As many as 57 persons lost their lives in different districts and 10 more are reported missing, he said and added about 60.11 lakh people have been affected.