Orissa floods claim 30 lives

The flood situation in Orissa remained grim today with flood water spreading to more areas affecting more than 37 lakh persons in 18 districts of the state.

The government has also called in the Navy for helping in the relief and evacuation work in the worst affected districts like Kendarapara. The unprecedented flood has so far claimed 30 lives in different areas.

This included 3 deaths each in the districts of Angul, Bhadrakh and Bolangir. While 7 casualties were recorded in Cuttack district, 4 were killed in Jajpur district. One person each died in Keonjhar and Puri district. The casualty figures of Kendarapada district has not yet reached the state head quarters.

Briefing the media on the flood situation, chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy said, one more district namely Baragarh was affected in the flood taking the number of districts affected by the unprecedented flood to 18.

The number of marooned villages increased to 6500 today with 650 villages still being marooned. While 51,417 houses have been damaged, more than 2, 84, 943 persons have been evacuated in these areas. About 4,17,123 hectares of crop has also been damaged.

Meanwhile, the state government intensified the relief and rescue operations in the affected areas with 3 helicopters taking up 13 sorties to drop food packets in the most affected areas. Till 3 pm in the afternoon about 12,390 packets were dropped and 25 metric tonnes of foodgrains were distributed.

“Relief material has been released to all the Gram Panchayats in the affected districts and efforts are on to reach the last village,” Tripathy added.

GVV Sarma, commissioner-secretary, revenue and disaster management department, Orissa government said, 73 embankments beached and 939 road beaches were reported in four districts.

He said, situation in some parts of Kendarapada was more serious as flood water entered in more villages in Marshaghai block. While the situation continued to be grim in Puri district, it improved in some areas of Jagatsinghpus district. Only 3 gates of Hirakud reservoir was open today, he said.

The chief minister Naveen Patnaik today criticised the Centre stating that despite Orissa experiencing this unprecedented flood, neither the Prime minister nor any Central minister has come to visit Orissa.

Besides, there is no assurance of any kind from the Centre to the state showing the Centre’s negligence of the people of Orissa, he alleged.