Housing assistance for flood-hit by October 5

BHUBANESWAR: Housing assistance to the families whose houses were damaged by floods will be provided by October 5. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who reviewed the flood situation at a meeting here on Thursday, also directed Government departments to assess the flood damage and submit flood damage reports (FDRs) to the Government by September 25 without fail.While senior officers of the line departments will supervise the flood damage assessment, district collectors and superintendents of police of districts concerned will provide necessary logistic support to the official teams engaged in the job, Revenue Minister SN Patro told mediapersons. The supervision will be done by officers not below the rank of joint secretary and departments have been instructed to ensure that the assessment was done in fair and transparent manner, Patro said. A list of damaged property will be displayed in each of the flood-affected villages for public view, the Minister said adding that the damaged public and private infrastructure will be photographed and video recorded.The Government has made a provision for purchase of cameras for the purpose and the cost of a new camera has been fixed at Rs. 12,000. The fund for  purchasing a camera will be provided by the Special Relief Commissioner, he added. Responding to a query, the Minister said housing assistance for a fully damaged pucca building is Rs. 35,000 while the amount is Rs. 5,000 for partially damaged house. For a fully damaged kutcha house, the financial assistance is Rs. 15,000 while it is Rs. 2500 for partially damaged house. The Minister said 26 human casualties have been reported from seven districts while 12 persons swept away by floods are still missing. Maximum number of deaths were reported from Kendrapara.  The calamity has claimed ten lives in Kendrapara followed by seven in Jajpur, three in Mayurbhanj, two in Sambalpur and one each in Khurda and Bhadrak districts.  Families of the deceased persons will get an ex-gratia of one lakh from the calamity relief fund.