All out coordinated efforts to bring back normalcy soon in Fani-hit districts

Surjit Kumar Dhal,BHUBANESWAR, MAY 20: All out efforts by the State government, the Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority, district administrations, different departments and voluntary organisations to bring back normalcy soon in the cyclone-devastated districts have paid dividends. Such efforts are going on in full swing, having achieved success to a large extent in almost all areas.

An official release issued here today said pipe water supply has been restored in the affected urban and rural areas.

Apart from that, due to proper management in relief distribution more than 95 per cent people of affected areas have been provided with cash and rice component, the release said.

It also mentioned about additional monthly pensions having been distributed to more that 90 per cent beneficiaries.

CM’s Package: Most important is Chief Minister has announced a special package of Rs. 100 crore from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the cyclone-affected street vendors, affected coconut and poultry farmers.

About 30,000 street vendors of 11 Urban Local Bodies in affected areas will be provided with a cash assistance of Rs. 10,000 each to support their livelihood.

Cash assistance of Rs. 500 per damaged coconut trees will be provided to the affected farmers subject to a limit of 25 trees per farmer.

To revive the broiler units in the cyclone-affected areas, each farmer will be provided an assistance of 75 per cent subsidy limited to Rs. 1 lakh per unit of 500 birds. 2,000 small broiler poultry units will be supported through this intervention.

Relief Distribution: Relief materials in shape of cash have been provided to 94.4 per cent beneficiaries in Puri district while in Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, BMC 98.6 pc, 95 pc, 99.31 pc, 97.7 pc and 87.4 pc of beneficiaries respectively have been covered, bringing the total coverage to around 95 per cent.

Similarly, around 95 per cent of beneficiaries have been given rice component while the percentage of people covered in the districts of Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, BMC and Khurda is 96.6, 99, 97.34, 98.5, 81.9 and 97.1 per cent respectively.

Besides, 83.9 per cent beneficiaries in Puri district have been given polythene or cash in lieu of polythene while percentage of such beneficiaries in BMC and Khurda district is 87.4 and 84.2 respectively.

On the other hand, additional monthly pension has been disbursed to around 90 per cent beneficiaries in the affected areas. Percentage of beneficiaries covered in the districts of Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts is 94, 98.8, 83.9, 97.5 and 98 respectively while 64.3 per cent of the beneficiaries have been provided additional monthly pension in BMC.

Power Restoration: There has been remarkable progress in power restoration. While 100 per cent electricity consumers in Kendrapara district have been covered, the coverage has been 91 per cent in Cuttack and 87 per cent in Jagatsinghpur district.

In Cuttack CDD-I division, connection to hundred per cent beneficiaries has been achieved while in CDD-II, around 61,484 out of 69,031 consumers have been provided electricity.

Under CED, around 71,200 rural and urban beneficiaries out of 95,599 have been given electricity supply.

In BCDD-I, Bhubaneswar 100 per cent consumers have already been covered while in BCDD-II about 1, 44,666 rural and urban consumers out of 1,47,531 consumers have been given power supply.

Similarly, in BED 1, 08,050 rural and urban consumers have been covered out of 1, 09,984.

In Jagatsinghpur Electrical Divn JED, 41 nos. of feeder out of 43 have become operational and 95,870 consumers have been provided electricity connection out of 1, 16,215.

In Paradeep (PED) division, all 24 feeders have become operational while 93, 394 out of 1, 01,228 consumers have been provided with power supply.

In Puri out of 56 feeders, 12 have been made operational and 5 feeders out of 28 are working in NED (Nimapada).

Till date more than 14, 000 consumers of Puri district have been given power supply. All out efforts are being made to restore power supply in Puri district in the shortest possible time.