Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday urged the Centre to sanction five lakh Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) (Grameen) special houses initially for Odisha for those affected in the cyclone-hit districts.
The chief minister wrote to Prime Minister thanking the Centre for the support rendered to Odisha to effectively manage the extremely severe cyclone Fani and its aftermath. He also wrote that people of the affected districts had gone through immense hardship and the loss of shelter had been a devastating experience.
Stating that the state government is undertaking a detailed house damage assessment, the chief minister said the exact number of houses damaged completely or substantially will be arrived at after the survey which will be completed very soon. However, according to a preliminary estimate, around five lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 districts, the most happening in Puri district, he said.
He requested the Prime Minister to kindly consider the plight of the homeless people and sanction 5 lakh PMAY (G) special houses initially for the state and waive the permanent wait list (PWL) criterion for this particular allocation and also consider a Centre-state fund-sharing pattern of 90:10 as a special case.
“The rainy season is fast approaching and the monsoon is likely to reach Odisha around June 10. Keeping in view the urgency to provide pucca houses to the affected people, we are going ahead with issuing of work orders from June 1 in anticipation of the approval of our proposal by the Government of India,” the chief minister said.
Drawing the attention of the Prime Minister, who had had personally witnessed the damage in the cyclone-affected areas during his visit to the state on May 6, the chief minister said that a presentation on the extent of damage was also made by the state administration, highlighting the dire need for building disaster-resilient housing along the coastal belt, which is vulnerable to cyclonic storms.
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