Bhubaneswar : Major rivers like Subannarekha, Budhabalanga and Baitarani are in spate due to heavy rainfall in North Odisha and Jharkhand in the last 24 hours.
However, the water level of the Odisha’s largest river Mahanadi has been coming down steadily with the Hirakud dam- the largest one in Odisha, being able to discharge more water than its daily water intake.
More than 2200 villages spread across 13 districts have been flood affected and as many as 5 lakh 45 thousand people of 768 villages are waterlocked.
The state government has been taking various measures like making provisions for more than 300 relief centres, deployment of 185 medical relief centres with more than 100 mobile medical teams and distribution of ORS pouch, water packets and halogen tablets besides food items for the flood affected people. A total of 16 NDRF, 17 ODRAF and 58 additional fire service teams have been deployed in the affected areas.
The state government yesterday has delegated the powers of the Special Relief Commissioner to the district collector of Balasore district in North Odisha to tackle any emergency situation arising out of flood in the Subannarekha river system. A helicopter has also been put under his disposal to meet any eventuality.
