Orissa urges Centre to depute Central team to assess flood damage

Bhubaneswar, Aug 25 (UNI)The Orissa government has urged the entre to depute a team to assess the unprecedented damage caused due to floods in the state during June and August.

State Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal, who met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in Delhi yesterday, submitted a memorandum on the floods situation in the state and urged him to depute a central team to study the damages.

Mr Samal, who made an aerial survey of the affected areas of the state today, told newspersons that the flood had affected over 25 lakh people in as many as 27 of the 30 districts covering 8713 villages in 132 blocks.

He said with two more deaths reported during the last 24 hours the death toll has gone upto 67 while over 50,000 houses had been damaged in the floods and standing crop covering over 3.3 lakh hectares destroyed.

The Revenue Minister said the state government had earlier sought central assistance of Rs 750 crores after the second phase of floods but later revised it to Rs 1131 crores following two more floods in July and August.

Mr Samal said several villages under the Mahandi, Baitarani, Subarnarekha and Brahmni rivers system are still marooned although water in all major river was showing a receding trend over the past 24 hours.

He said while 18 districts were affected in the first phase of flood, 11 districts were affected in the second phase 14 more in third and fourth phase.

The Revenue Minister said barring Jharsugura, Sundargarh and Deogarh all other districts in the state have been affected by floods.

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