Page 51 - 31MAY2019E

Chief Minister calamity
Naveen Patnaik
directs officials to
start assessment of

The delay in start of house assess- houses damaged in cators. Proving special category status
ment may cause a lot of hardship for will help us accelerate growth,” he said.
the people, said Suresh Panigrahi, a Cyclone Fani, which When asked about if Cyclone Fani
CPI(M) leader. Congress leader Nar- made landfall in Puri should have been declared a national
asingha Mishra also accused the state calamity considering the magnitude
government of having failed to handle with wind speed of of the damage, he said special category
the post-cyclone situation. up to 240 kmph on status will solve the purpose. “If the

Special category plea May 3 and has left at Centre declares the special category
status , everything will be taken care of,”
Patnaik, meanwhile, has demanded Patnaik said.
special category status from Centre for least 241 injured
his disaster-prone state, saying it faces Relief & assistance
natural calamities almost every year. In puts too much stress on our finances. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
an interview, he said special category Precisely for this reason, Odisha should announced 1000 crore assistance
status is the need of the hour due to the be considered for special category sta- for Odisha and he also did an ariel
massive loss to infrastructure which tus. In the last five years we had Phailin, survey of cyclone ravaged area. He
may stall growth of the state. Hudhud, Titli and now Fani. In addition praised the people for cooperating
“In fact, this is one of the our main to this, we has massive floods.” with the administration before the
demands before the Union govern- Patnaik, who was sworn in as the calamity hit the state and applauded
ment. Odisha faces natural calamities chief minister for the first time in 2000 Patnaik for timely relocation work
almost every year. The assistance we and is now seeking the consecutive fifth to minimise the causalities. He also
get from the Centre is mostly for tem- term, said it was necessary to acceler- promised to provide all possible help
porary restoration of infrastructure. ate the growth rate of the state. “We from the Centre. “It is the teamwork
We have to spend a lot from state’s own are maintaining a growth rate higher coupled with technology that helped
funds to work for the long-term,” a PTI than that of the country. We are doing in this mammoth exercise. I am grate-
report quoted Patnaik as saying. “This so well in all our socio-economic indi- ful to everyone involved, especially to

• Homes damage The house damage assessment is
likely to be complete within one week from May 15

Tehelka / 31 may 2019 51 www.Tehelka.com