Visit of Inter-Ministerial Central Team in the wake of Flood in August 2020

An Inter-Ministerial Central Team led by Shri Praveen Vashista, Joint Secretary (LWE), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has visited Odisha for an on the spot assessment of the situation in the wake of Flood in August 2020. The team comprises of members from the Ministry/ Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Water Resources, Road Transport & Highways, Rural Development and Finance.

The team visited 4 districts namely Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada and Puri and return to Bhubaneswar on 17.9.2020 afternoon.

A wrap up meeting held with the team under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary on 17.9.20, 5 PM in Lok Seva Bhawan. Among others, Development Commissioner, Agriculture Production Commissioner, Special Relief Commissioner & Additional Chief Secretary, Disaster Management and Secretaries of different departments attended the meeting. SRC presented a detailed presentation on damage, response, relief, evacuation etc. The team appreciated the efforts of the Government and also agreed to the suggestion to consider supporting the State not only in response as per SDRF norm but also include mitigation measures like strengthening of embankments, construction of new embankments, disaster resilient housing support against damaged houses and other resilient infrastructure. They also appreciated State’s approach to Disaster Management and new approach of seeking assistance from Central Government on mitigation measures. About 2.25lakh ha of agriculture and crop land have suffered more than 33% damage. Similarly about 1.20,000 houses have suffered damages to various degrees. Besides embankments, roads, public infrastructure have also been damaged. The response support as requested would be about 1100 Cr and mitigation measures are being worked out and will be indicated in the Final Memorandum.