Orissa seeks Rs 1797 crore flood assistance

Bhubaneswar, Sep 4 (UNI) The Orissa government today sought a Central assistance of Rs 1797 crore to tackle the flood situation in the state.

Describing the flood situation as grave and unprecedented, the state government sought Rs 1797 crore Central assistance before a seven-member Central team, which arrived here to assess the damages, caused by the floods for the fifth time since July this year.

Special Relief Commissioner Jagadananda Panda told mediapersons that the Central team, led by Joint Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs S K Chakravarty, would visit the flood-affected areas of the state in four groups.

The state government had stated that the floods had so far affected crops over 6.68 lakh hectare and damaged 1.05 lakh houses claiming 81 lives.

Mr Panda said so far the state government had not received any fund from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) for the rescue and relief operation in the current flood, that affected nearly 30 districts in the state.

He said the government was panicky following a depression near Chandbali yesterday but the depression slowly moved to Jharsugura and was further moving towards Chhattisgarh.

The SRC said the situation in coastal Kendrapada had turned worse following heavy rains due to the depression. It received nearly 90 mm rainfall in a single day compounding the miseries of thousands of people, who were camping on highways.

The state government, he said, had started distributing polythene sheets to the flood victims, whose houses had been damaged. Mr Panda said so far 200 tonne of polythene sheets had been distributed and the government had ordered for 200 tonne more polythene sheets as there had been great demand for such materials among the flood-affected people.

Meanwhile, Orissa Pradesh Congres Committee(OPCC) president Jayadev Jena today came down heavily on the state government for its failure in handling the operation in the flood-hit areas and demanded and all political party meeting be convened to take stock of the situation and formulate strategy to tackle the unprecedented flood situation in the state.

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