The death toll in Cyclone Fani rose to 29 on Sunday, two days after the “extremely severe” storm barrelled through coastal Odisha, causing widespread destruction and leaving hundreds grappling with water shortage and power cuts, an official said.
Announcing a relief package for those affected by thecalamity, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said all families in Puri and in thoseparts of Khurda, which had been “extremely severely affected” in thestorm, will get 50 kg of rice, Rs 2,000 in cash and polythene sheets, ifcovered under the Food Security Act (FSA).
For the rest of Khurda district — categorised as”severely” affected — the FSA families will get a month’s quota ofrice, Rs 1,000 in cash and polythene sheets, he added.
Those living in the “moderately-affected”districts of Cuttack, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur will be eligible for amonth’s quota of rice and Rs 500 in cash, Patnaik said.
The chief minister also announced an assistance of Rs 95,100for “fully-damaged” houses, Rs 52,000 for”partially-damaged” houses and Rs 3,200 for houses that had sufferedminor damage.
Talking to reporters here, Patnaik claimed that water supplyhad been restored in 70 per cent areas of the worst-hit Puri town and 40 percent of the places in state capital Bhubaneswar.
“I am hoping that water supply will be fully restoredin Bhubaneswar shortly and at least in 90 per cent areas of Puri town by thisevening,” the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief, who is seeking a fifth term inoffice, said.
“The government has made arrangements to provide cookedfood for free over the next 15 days. We will also take up tree plantation on amission mode,” he added.
The chief minister, however, could not give the details onthe status of the ongoing work for power restoration in the affected areas.
“We have to be very careful to avoid accidentalelectrocution,” he said, when asked if power supply will be restored inthe capital city, which continued without electricity for the third day onSunday.
According to state Chief Secretary A P Padhi, 21 of the 29deaths were registered in the pilgrim town of Puri, where the storm made alandfall on Friday, flattening fragile houses, uprooting scores of trees,electric poles and mobile towers.
The government had mounted a massive restoration work across10,000 villages and 52 urban areas ravaged by the storm, affecting nearly onecrore people, he said.
The “extremely severe” cyclonic storm, one of the”rarest of rare”, unleashed copious rain and windstorm that gusted upto 240 kmph on Friday, blowing away thatched houses and swamping towns andvillages, before weakening and entering West Bengal.
Asserting that efforts were on to restore electricity in theaffected areas, Energy Secretary Hemant Sharma said the power infrastructure wasseverely damaged in Puri, Khurda, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara andBalasore districts during the cyclone.
According to a state government official, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is likely to visit Odisha to review the situation. Modi spoke toPatnaik on Saturday and assured continuous support from the Centre for therehabilitation work.
The East Coast Railway (ECoR) partially resumed operationson the Howrah-Chennai route on Sunday.
“Barring the Bhubaneswar-Tirupati Express and theVisakhapatnam Intercity Express, all trains originating from the state capital,including the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, will be running normallyfrom Sunday,” an ECoR official said.