OGP demands Army help in flood-hit Kendrapada

Bhubaneswar, Sep 5 (UNI) Orissa Gana Parishad (OGP) today demanded the rescue and relief operation in Kendrapada district, worst hit by the recent flood, should be handed over to the Army forthwith.

OGP president Bijaya Mohapatra told newsmen here the state government machineries had completely failed to mitigate the sufferings of the flood victims.

The relief operation in the district had been taken over by the ruling BJD party supporters and being carried out on political consideration.

No government officials were seen in engaged in the rescue and relief operation in the worst-hit pockets of Kendrapada, Mr Mohapatra said and demanded that the Army should be requisitioned by the government to render help to the needy people, still marooned in the floods that caused a havoc in the district.

The OGP president also urged the government to provide at least one month relief to the flood victims considering the gravity of the situation. Many villages in the district, Mr Mohapatra said, were still submerged where the people were yet to get the relief even after one week of the floods wreaked havoc in the area.

State Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal said senior officers had been deputed to Puri and Kendrapada to monitor the relief and rescue operation.

He said five units of Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been deployed in Kendrapada and other coastal orissa districts ravaged by the floods in Mahanadi river system.

Mr Samal said the flood situation in Puri continued to remain grave as nearly one hundred villages in three blocks were still submerged in the flood waters.

A seven-member central team, which arrived here yesterday, had been divided into four groups and visited the flood-affected areas to assess the damages. The state government had demanded Central assistance of Rs 1797 crore before the team while describing the flood situation as grave and unprecedented.

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