Odisha seeks 5 lakh pucca houses for cyclone-hit people

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction 5 lakh pucca houses for the cyclone-affected people in the state.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Patnaik requested him to consider sanctioning 5 lakh Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (G) special houses initially for the state.

He also sought a waiver of the Permanent Wait List (PWL) criterion for this particular allocation and also consider Centre-state sharing pattern of 90:10 as a special case.

"The rainy season is fast approaching and the monsoon is likely to reach Odisha around June 10. Therefore, keeping in view the urgency to provide pucca houses to the affected people, we are going ahead with issuing of work orders from June 1 in anticipation of approval of our proposal by the government of India," said the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister said that according to preliminary estimation, about 5 lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 districts with the major loss occuring in Puri district.

The state government was undertaking a detailed house damage assessment which would be completed shortly, he added.

Modi reviewed the cyclone situation in the state on May 6. The cyclonic storm Fani had hit the coast on May 3.

--IANS

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