The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Thursday offered to provide technical expertise and guidance to Odisha to undertake rehabilitation and restoration work in the area affected by extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani.
During a wrap up meeting the visiting three-member NDMA team on the concluding day of their visit offered technical expertise and guidance in the field of power, telecom and housing sector.
Odisha chief secretary A P Padhi said. ‘’We are now in the phase of rehabilitation and restoration and we welcome the technical expertise and guidance from the NDMA for these works.’’
Padhi told the NDMA team that the Rs.1000 crore released by the central government was exhausted and he requested the team for release of Rs 5200 crore from NDRF. The chief secretary requested NDMA to ask the telecom companies to develop definite SOP and preparedness for dealing with disaster situation as communication and data transfer is of crucial importance in relief and restoration works.
The disbursement of compensation to the affected people was affected due to lack of data connectivity, he said.
NDMA member Kamal Kishore highly praised the Odisha government for its preparedness and response. He said the response of the state government to the devastating cyclone Fani is world class. The state has set new benchmarks in disaster management and now other states are to emulate it. The experience and expertise of Odisha is recorded as a model at national and international level.
“In all places that we visited we have heard and seen about satisfaction level of the people in rescue and relief operations,” Kishore said.
NDMA secretary Pradip Kumar said that they saw massive loss in housing, power distribution, telecom and livelihood sectors during their visit to the affected areas.
NDMA, he said, would work in close collaboration with the state in these sectors.
State relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said more than 5 lakh houses were damaged partially or fully in the cyclone and more than 33 per cent crop was damaged in 146,311 hectares of land.
The cyclone , he said, had also affected livelihood of 71,060 traditional craftsmen, 42,488 handloom weavers and 12,135 sericulture farmers. Apart from this, 6,416 fishing boats were damaged and 573 micro and small enterprises were affected.
The SRC requested to include livelihood support to the street vendors affected by the cyclone under the SDRF/ NDRF norms. UNI)
