Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sanctioning of five lakh Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) houses in 14 Cyclone Fani- affected districts in the State.
Patnaik wrote the letter a day after he announced that all families whose houses have been completely or substantially damaged in the cyclone will be sanctioned pucca houses.
Maintaining that the State Government is undertaking a detailed house damage assessment which would be completed shortly, Patnaik said, “The exact number of houses damaged completely or substantially will be arrived after the survey. However, according to preliminary estimates, about 5 lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 districts with the major loss occurring in Puri district,” said Patnaik.
“In the above context, I would likely to consider sanctioning 5 lakh PMAY (G) Special Houses initially for the State and reiterated 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,” said Patnaik.
“The rainy season is fast approaching and the monsoon is likely to reach Odisha around June 10. Therefore, keeping in view the urgency to provide pucca houses to the affected people, we are going ahead with issuing of work orders from June 1 in anticipation of the approval of our proposal by Government of India,” said Patnaik.
Notably, the PM personally witnessed the damage in the cyclone through aerial survey on May 6 and announced an additional Rs 1,000 crore Central assistance for the State.
As per the latest Situation Report released by the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC), at least 5,08,467 houses have been damaged due to the cyclone in the State.
The extreme severe cyclonic storm Fani had barrelled through the Odisha coast near Puri causing extensive damage in 14 districts – Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Khordha, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh and Puri.
