Bhubaneswar, Aug 1 (PTI) Ten Odisha districts in the downstream of the Mahanadi have been put on high alert as the Hirakud Dam kept discharging water into the river through 22 gates, with Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday saying the floods have impacted eight lakh people.
Majhi said the flood situation in northern Odisha was showing signs of improvement, the administration was focused on the “highly vulnerable” Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts in the Mahanadi delta area amid sustained water release from the Hirakud Dam.
The chief minister undertook an aerial survey of Bhadrak, Jajpur, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts in the northern parts of the state along with Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari and Special Relief Commissioner Rajesh Prabhakar Patil.
He later told reporters that flood waters have started receding in the region and the situation was improving in these five districts. “The flood situation may improve further in maybe two more days,” Majhi said.
While focusing on the rehabilitation and restoration works immediately after flood water recedes in the affected areas, Majhi assigned ministers to look after specific districts.
While Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo will oversee relief and rehabilitation work in Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts, another DyCM Pravati Parida has been given charge of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari will monitor operations in Puri district, while Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister Rabinarayan Naik will supervise efforts in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar.
Majhi also directed other ministers to visit their respective districts as in-charge ministers and closely track the progress of relief distribution, rescue operations and rehabilitation measures.
As many as 2.69 lakh people have been evacuated from low-lying areas and sheltered in 700 relief camps, the chief minister said while asserting that his government was closely monitoring the situation.
“The recent floods have impacted around 8 lakh people and many villages are still marooned even though water levels in different rivers were coming down.” The deluge this year hit 20 districts of the coastal state, damaging civic infrastructure and hectares of crop land.
This apart, floods caused by the overflowing Salandi, Brahmani, Baitarani, Jalaka and Budhabalang rivers in north Odisha damaged over 1,300 houses in north Odisha, officials said. Bhadrak was the worst-affected district, followed by Jajpur, Balasore and Mayurbhanj.
Majhi has directed the officials to assess the damage caused by the deluge within 72 hours of water receding and said the affected people will get a comprehensive package from the government.
While there were signs of the flood situation alleviating in north Odisha, the Hirakud Dam dumping excess water into the Mahanadi caused the river and its tributaries to swell again and inundate low-lying areas of Khurda, Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts in the coastal region.
Officials said some villages in Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur were marooned.
The Special Relief Commissioner said 10 downstream districts of the Mahanadi have been put on high alert. Special focus is on Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts, which have been identified as highly vulnerable for being located in the Mahanadi delta area, an official said.
The other districts in the Mahanadi basin on high alert were Angul, Boudh, Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Nayagarh.
The water level in the Hirakud Dam was 625.47 feet against its full capacity of 630 feet. “The inflow and outflow of water from Hirakud Dam is now stable at below 4 lakh cusec,” said Pratap Chandra Choudhury, the chief engineer of the dam project.
The Revenue and Disaster Management Minister hoped for an improvement in the flood situation, noting that there has been no rain for the past two days and water discharge from the dam appears to have stabilised.
Officials said the water level at the Mundali barrage near Cuttack has also come down to about 7 lakh cusec from 8.88 lakh cusec on Thursday night.
The CM said he was keeping a close watch on the flood situation and the administration’s relief and rescue operation was guided by a “Zero Casualty” approach.
“The state has deployed 17 teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force, seven of National Disaster Response Force and 129 of fire and emergency service department for the rescue operation,” he said.
Senior officers were supervising the relief and rescue work on the ground, and the state government has already sanctioned Rs 26 lakh for relief and rescue work, he said.
Majhi had been facing fire from the opposition over his recent Delhi visit amid the floods.
The rival parties had accused the BJP of lacking sincerity in tackling the calamity, with leader of opposition Naveen Patnaik asking whether “the leaders were feasting in Delhi amid the flood horrors”.
Pujari had countered the charge, saying the chief minister was discharging “Raj Dharma” by pursuing a resolution to the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh in the national capital, an issue the previous Naveen Patnaik dispensation had failed to resolve. PTI AAM NSD AAM RG
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