Repair breaches immediately, Odisha CM tells officials

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Aug 11:

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has ordered immediate repair of breaches in different river embankments, Revenue and Disaster Mitigation minister Bijoyshree Routray informed today.

Routray was talking to reporters at the end of the review meeting on the flood situation chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here today.

Earlier in the day, Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra had informed the media that the Rural Development and Water Resources departments have been asked to undertake repair of all small breaches in the next three to four days. Repair of the bigger breaches including the breach at Patapur in Jajpur district would be completed within seven days as IMD had informed that in the next seven days the weather will be by and large dry, he added.

The SRC said the flood situation in the state was improving as water levels in most areas was receding.

Mohapatra said while 304 villages in the state remained marooned now, 3, 09,000 people were affected by the floods.

The SRC said Kendrapara and Puri districts had the maximum number of villages affected due to the floods. While 114 were affected in Kendrapara, 112 were affected in Puri district.

He said the death toll in the floods remained at 45 as no fresh casualty had been reported since Sunday evening.

Mohapatra said the focus from now on would be on stepping up relief operations in the flood affected areas. Distribution of relief will be accelerated and efforts will be made to complete it within a day, he said.

Replying to a question on whether relief will be provided beyond the statutory provision of seven days, Mohapatra said; “Let us first complete relief distribution. After that, we will take a decision on whether to extend it beyond seven days.”

He said the primary job now will be to undertake massive disinfection of tube wells and water supply sources on a priority basis wherever water levels have receded.

Stating that health teams are already on the job in the affected areas, Mohapatra said more teams will be dispatched to these areas to see that there is no outbreak of diarrhea, dengue, malaria and other epidemics.