The state government employees have been engaged in relief works in districts ravaged by the current floods. However, they can take leave in case of emergencies but with the permission of the Special Relief Commissioner(SRC). The puja holidays are scheduled to start on October 3 and would continue till October 11.

The decision to cancel holidays is aimed at further intensifying the flood relief works .
The state government has been at the receiving end of criticism from different quarters over the issue of inadequate relief to the flood affected people, despite using a record number of boats and choppers for the purpose.

At one point of time last Tuesday, as many as eight choppers were engaged to air drop relief materials to flood hit villagers in different districts.

Six helicopters were flying on Thursday. More than two hundred boats are also currently engaged in the relief operations.

Complaints of insufficient relief have mainly come from villages, which are still  marooned even more than a week after the floods.

 By Thursday morning, as many as 1362 villages had remained marooned in the worst hit districts of Jajpur, Bhadrak and Kendrapara.

The official death toll in the current floods stood at 38 by Thursday morning with three more reported missing. Jajpur and Bhadrak districts have recorded maximum number of nine deaths each.

Though the water levels in different rivers have already started receding, the current flood situation is expected to continue at least for the next 48 hours, sources in the SRC office  said.

The government has already announced that it would continue to provide relief to the people till normalcy returns to all the affected villages. Meanwhile, a six member official team from the Union home and other ministries arrived in the state to assess the situation.

This is the second official team from the Centre to visit the state during the last one week.