Odisha Govt submits final drought report, seeks Rs 2345 Cr from Center

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 15:

Odisha Government today submitted the final drought assessment memorandum to the Union Government seeking a central assistance of Rs 2344.99 crore, said Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradipta Mohapatra speaking to reporters today.

Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra SRC

The final report has been prepared based on the crop cutting report sent by collectors from all 30 districts of the state.

The State Government has demanded Rs 1062.47 crore as cash assistance in agriculture input subsidy, Rs 912.66 crore for conversion of crop loans granted during the 2015 kharif season, Rs 52.49 crore for revival of major irrigation projects and Rs 206.67 crore for gratuitous relief (food assistance) among others.

As per the report, apart from Jagatsinghpur and Malkangiri, rest all the districts of the state have been affected by drought. Among the least affected districts, Bhadrak has only two affected villages amounting to 133 hectares and Kendrapara has four villages amounting 4242 hectares.

“There has been extensive damage to crops in 29176 villages under 3832 gram panchayats. 235 blocks of 28 districts, 412 wards under 55 urban local bodies have also suffered greater than one third crop loss. Overall, 15.36 lakh hectare of land have been affected,” said SRC Mohapatra.

“Crop loss to the tune of 33 percent and more have been reported from highest 192074 hectares of land in Mayurbhanj district followed by 145246 hectares in Bargarh district and 124792 hectares of land in Bolangir district,” he added.

Notably, the State Government had earlier submitted an interim report seeking central assistance of Rs 1687.56 crore and had sought another Rs 511.5 crore later taking the tally to Rs 2199 crore. Out of the requested amount, the Central Government had sanctioned an assistance of Rs 815 crore on January 6.

Also Read

Comments are closed.