File Picture
With his state battered by Cyclone Fani and battling hard to return to normalcy, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought help from the centre in view of the large-scale destruction by Cyclone Fani in the coastal areas of the state.
The letter mainly sought relief for construction of houses given the widespread destruction caused by the severe cyclonic storm earlier this month.
“I would request you to kindly consider sanctioning 5 lakh (houses) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Special houses initially for the state of Odisha. As was mentioned during the presentation made on May 6, I reiterate our request for waiver of the Permanent Wait List (PWL) criterion for this particular allocation and also consider a Centre-State fund sharing pattern of 90:10 as a special case,” the letter read.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief also said that his government is currently working on a detailed house damage assessment and would soon come out with a report.
“According to preliminary estimation, about 5 lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 districts with the major loss occurring in Puri district. While the people of the affected districts have gone through immense hardship, the loss of shelter has been a devastating experience,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, political pundits in the state have begun the guessing game and and speculate a future alliance of the BJD and BJP post May 23 as Patnaik was in full praise of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his support to the state during the natural calamity.
