Floods claim 38 lives, affect 13 lakhs population in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Aug 7 (UNI) Flood in July has claimed as many as 38 lives in 12 districts affecting a population of 13.08 lakh in 6135 villages covering 92 blocks, a white paper presented in the state Assembly today said.

The state witnessed two floods, triggered by incessant rains, caused due to depression in the Bay of Bengal in between June 30 and July3 and again between August 1 and August 3.

While in July 13 districts were affected due to floods, the floods in August first week caused havoc in eight districts. A maximum 22 blocks in Ganjam district followed by 13 in Kalahandi district and eleven each in Rayagada and Puri were badly affected due to the flood, the white paper said.

The Ganjam district in South Orissa accounted for maximum ten casualty followed by eight in Rayagada district and five in Bhadrak districts.The deaths were caused due to landslide, boat tragedy, wall collapse and cyclonic storm.

The government claimed that out of 38 deaths, ex-gratia could be disbursed to the next kin of 23 victims as identification process was still on to disburse the compensation money to the rest victims.

The white paper said as per the preliminary report 37,058 houses had been damaged in the floods and rains in 14 district and the government had so far sanctioned Rs.324.73 lakhs to distribute to the affected families.

As per the report available from the Agriculture Department, nearly 1.21 lakh hectare land had been damaged in the floods in 15 district. Over 50 per cent crop had been damaged in 42,743 hectares of land, while 15,783 hectare of land, majority from Kalahandi district (11,192 hectare) damaged in sand casting.

The torrential rains in July and August followed by floods have also affected 379 roads causing breaches in 174 places.As many as 16 major roads,mostly in south orissa, were badly damaged,the white paper said.

Report received from the water Resources department said 216 breaches were reported in the river embankment and 306 breaches in the creek and other points during the floods and rains.

The Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force(ODRAF) deployed in the relief and rescue operation had rescued 13,369 people and shifted them to safer places.

UNI DP SJC VA RN2058