Press Release Date: 23.10.2013

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.