JOIN USNDRF clears 1,000 km road, rescues 15,000 people
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to families of the people who perished in Cyclone Phailin. Those seriously injured will get Rs 50,000.
The prime minister, who complimented central and state authorities for their efforts to minimise the impact of Phailin, was distressed at the extensive damage to property, crops and livestock. He also expressed sympathies for those who lost their kin and were rendered homeless, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The government is now focussing on rehabilitation of the affected people. The NDRF has cleared over 1,000 km of roads in Odisha and rescued around 1,522 people, including 1,015 from Balasore district. The NDRF has also deployed eight teams in Bihar and Jharkhand and two more teams have been put on alert.
People were rescued from Kavitri Mandal, Alipur and Patahgara in Ganjam and Raghunathpur and Banki in Cuttack, besides Jagatsinghpur, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Jajpur and Balasore.
“The NDRF teams have cleared 1,096 km of roads by removing 937 trees. Around 45 electric poles were also cleared. Most of the important roads were opened and made motorable by the NDRF,” an NDRF spokesperson said.
Around 1,400 kg of relief material were distributed by the NDRF in Balasore and Ganjam districts.
In Bihar and Jharkhand, four teams have been stationed at Supaul, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and Gopalganj, while two teams each are at Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Patna and Purnia. There are two NDRF teams at Supaul as well.
Food Minister K V Thomas has also sent Food Corporation of India and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) officials to assess damage to food stocks in Odisha.
He said there were reports that the FCI and State Warehousing Corporation (SWC) godowns at Jagannathpur and a CWC godown at Berhampur were partially damaged. The Jagannathpur warehouse had 13,888 MT of foodgrain while the one at Berhampur had 38,181 MT.
Thomas has instructed the officials to verify whether the foodgrain in the affected godowns were usable.
He has asked the FCI to prepare a quality control report on damaged stocks and make arrangements to supply foodgrain to the state from other godowns.
Food and Consumer Affairs secretary Sudhir Kumar reviewed the availability of foodgrain in godowns at coastal areas on Monday. Kumar also asked the FCI, CWC and the SWC to immediately repair the godowns.