Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government today asked the Collectors to assess the damage to private properties due to recent heavy rainfall that occurred in several parts of the State from October 23-25.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) and Principal Secretary, Disaster Management, Pradip Jena wrote to Collectors of all districts urging them to submit an assessment report by November 4, following which payment will be made under the norms of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF)/National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
“The state government has declared heavy rain as state-specific disaster within the local context. Therefore, the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) will meet the expenditure on relief measures and immediate repair and restoration of damaged public infrastructure within a 10% limit of the annual allocation for SDRF”, the letter said.
“The assessment of damage to private properties in different sectors such as houses, agriculture (crop loss of 33% & above), sand cast of agriculture land, etc. and enumeration of beneficiaries have to be taken up on priority so that the assistance as per norms of SDRF can be paid to the affected person expeditiously to enable them to repair/ reconstruct their houses and restore livelihood,” it added.
“In case of houses fully damaged or severely inundated for more than two days, the affected households may be provided assistance for clothing and utensils in addition to the prescribed house building assistance and expeditious steps may also be taken for sanction and payment of ex-gratia from the available funds to the next of kins of the persons who have lost their lives”, it added.
“The crop loss assessment must be carried out by the joint teams consisting of Revenue, Agriculture and Horticulture personnel. The supervising officers shall conduct test checks to ensure correctness in the assessment. Photographic evidence of the beneficiaries concerned along with the damaged houses at the background is mandatory. In case of houses fully damaged or severely inundated for more than two days, the affected households may be provided with assistance for clothing and utensils in addition to the prescribed house building assistance.
Expeditious steps may also be taken for sanction and payment of ex-gratia from the available funds to the next of kin of the persons who have lost their lives,” the SRC said.
He also asked the Collectors to disburse assistance out of the available funds without waiting for allotment from SRC since the damage has occurred on a limited scale. However, funds will be placed after receipt of reports from the collectors, he added.
The disbursement must be done through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode by way of transfer of the amount to the account of the beneficiaries, the SRC insisted.