Niranjan requests a special relief and rehabilitation package for
Cyclone hit Odisha
Bhubaneswar, October
21, 2013: Former
Minister and senior Congress leader Shri Niranjan Patnaik has requested the
Hon’ble Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar for a special relief and
rehabilitation package for Odisha in view of the extensive damage by cyclone
Phailin in South Odisha, particulalry Ganjam and flash floods in North Odisha
districts like Mayurbhanj and Balasore. Sri Patnaik has said that the amount
available under the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) may not be
adequate to restore the infrastructure devastated by the calamity and what the
state needs is a substantially higher assistance.
In a letter to the Agriculture Minister, who heads the
inter-Ministerial group that will take a final call on the amount of money to
be provided to odisha, Shri Patnaik reminded that in 1999 when NDA was in power
in the Centre, two cyclones hit Odisha, one in Gopalpur on Oct 18-19 and the
other in Mahanadi Delta on Oct28-29. In the Gopalpur cyclone similar to the
Phailin there were ‘zero causalities’ despite the India Meteorological
Department (IMD) giving a two-hour alert to the authorities. Evacuation was
successfully carried out as has been done now. The present BJD government has
been confusing between the super cyclone of 1999 in Mahanadi delta where there
were considerable loss of life and the Gopalpur cyclone where there was no
casulaty. In fact, Mr Patnaik pointed out that Gopalpur is 25 feet above the
sea level and historically there has been no casualties making land fall in
Gopalpur in 1971, 1972, 1999 and 2013.
He said, the Central Government had given no support to
the state government in 1999 Gopalpur cyclone. The then Defence Minister George
Fernandez had visited Gopalpur and Sri Naveen Patnaik as a Central Minister had
reached Gopalpur on Oct 19, a fact that he seems to have conveniently
forgotten. But, Ganjam got no
financial assistance from the centre despite their ‘disaster tourism’. Even
after the super cyclone, the Central government refused to declare the Odisha
Super Cyclone as a ‘national calamity’ because it did not come under the
category of ‘rare severity’ and the assistance we got was a pittance.
This time, the Central Government, the IMD, the National
Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have provided excellent support. “I request that
the Central Government should maintain this spirit and not neglect the state in
providing assistance under the National Calamity Contingency Fund. The state
gets money from the Planning Commission for preparing capabilities for dealing
with calamities and thanks to the UPA Government, the state has been receiving
generous support of plan funds and the state’s capabilities have improved as
also the capabilities of central agencies. But, the relief and rehabilitation
assistance comes from mainly NCCF, which will not be adequate” Shri Patnaik
said.
“Our past experience is that the BJD government have become
expert in putting their party symbols to all centrally sponsored programs to
claim credit while continuing to campaign on ‘central neglect’. Despite the
hypocrisy of the BJD, I request the Central Government to take an objective
view above partisan consideration and provide at least four times more money from
what was provided by the NDA Government after the 1999 Super Cyclone,” Shri
Patnaik averred.
