Odisha rains: Collectors asked to submit damage assessment report in a week

Bhubaneswar: When thousands of people have been marooned and four human casualties reported following incessant rain in Odisha for past three days, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena today asked District Collectors to submit a damage assessment report within a week.

In a letter to the Collectors, Jena stated the submission of the damage assessment report by September 22, 2021 will help disburse funds to the affected people at the earliest.

The SRC directed the Collectors to process cases of human casualties online expeditiously through the Disaster Assistance Monitoring and Payment System (DAMPS) for sanction and payment of ex-gratia to the next of kin of the deceased.

The letter further wrote geo-tagged and time stamped photograph of damaged houses and crop area must be taken during assessment and preserved in the case record. In case of house damage, photo of the beneficiary concerned may be taken along with the damaged house at the background.

If houses were fully damaged or severely inundated for more than two days, the affected household must be provided with assistance for clothing and utensils in addition to the prescribed house building assistance, it stated.

Joint teams of Revenue, Agriculture and Horticulture departments personnel will carry out crop loss assessment.

The Collectors were asked to take steps for disbursement among people, who suffered damages due to the incessant rain, out of the available funds without waiting for allotment from SRC.

Also read: Odisha Rains: Three Killed In Rain-Related Mishaps

They were asked to ensure the disbursement must be done through DBT so that the amount gets transferred to the accounts of the beneficiaries. During assessment and enumeration bank account details of the eligible beneficiaries must be collected, the SRC directed.

The district administrations were asked to provide polythene to the affected households immediately.

Worth mentioning, the government declared heavy rain as state-specific disaster due to which expenditure on relief measures, and immediate repair and restoration of the damaged public infrastructure will be met from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).