Odisha CM announces seven day relief for flood victims

The chief minister today made an aerial survey of five districts ravaged by the floods

Amid unrelenting flood, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced relief for the flood affected people for the next seven days.

Patnaik today made an aerial survey of five districts ravaged by the floods- Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Puri. “Today I made an aerial survey of flood affected districts of Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Puri. Some areas have been affected badly by the floods. I have directed the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) to ensure that relief is given for seven days to the worst affected”, Patnaik said.

The chief minister, however, claimed that the flood situation is improving and hoped that normalcy will return soon.

Data provided by the SRC office reveals that torrential rain and consequential floods in major rivers has affected 1.78 million people across 3990 villages in 23 districts. Human casualty in the floods stands at 35 with the death toll highest in Bargarh district at 10 followed by five in Mayurbhanj, four in Sambalpur, three each in Jajpur and Bhadrak, two each in Khurda and Kendrapara, and one each in the districts of Bolangir, Boudh, Kandhamal, Korpaut, Deogarh and Dhenkanal.

As many as 365 boats have been pressed into service and 69,430 people have been evacuated from flooded areas.

However, 22 villages still remain marooned despite the state government taking up rescue operations on a war footing. Crop area of 208911.9 hectares has been affected by the floods while 15943 houses have been damaged.

Under its relief operations, the government has set up 243 free kitchen/relief camps, covering 73,561 beneficiaries. Emergent relief consisting of 489.7 quintals of rice and 1989 quintals of flattened rice has been distributed.

Special Relief Commissioner Pradipta K Mohapatra said the possibility of a high flood in Mahanadi river has been averted.

Mohapatra said 1.1 million cusec water is flowing at Mundali without any indication of causing trouble and the water level in all major rivers in the state was receding. Meanwhile, the Hirakud Dam authorities have decided to close three of the 50 open gates in view of decline in rainfall in Mahanadi’s upper catchment in Chhattisgarh. More sluice gates were likely to be closed in view of receding rainfall.