Bhubaneswar: The Socialist Activist Federation of Odisha (SAFO) on Monday felicitated 40 journalists and social workers, including noted photojournalist Biswaranjan Mishra with Utkal Bira Awards here for helping people in all the three phases of cyclone Fani disaster management that include pre, during and post cyclone period through their respective media houses.
School and Mass Education Minister Sameer Ranjan Dash attended the function as the chief guest and distributed the awards. He hailed the awardees for extending help to the needy at the time of difficulty.
“During the disaster situations, it is important to disseminate correct credible information from reliable sources to reduce the panic among the public and also guide them to take appropriate actions during the disasters. Here, the media persons helped in sharing information related to the cyclone Fani thereby minismising the damage,” said Dash.
The Minister also saluted the social workers for reaching out people during the disaster.
Journalists – Pradosh Patnaik, Pradyumna Satpathy and SAFO State president Narayan Chandra Ojha, secretary Susant Kumar Nayak and social activists Namrata Chadha and Linkan Subudhi and Traffic ACP Dr Kishore Chandra Panigrahi also graced the occasion.
Cyclone Fani, an extremely severe cyclonic storm, barrelled through Puri on May 3, caused widespread destruction in nearly 10 districts, including Bhubaneswar. Ahead of the cyclone, nearly 12 lakh people were evacuated and shifted to safer locations within 24 hours from about 10,000 villages and 52 urban areas.
