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Flood-prone State status for Orissa sought

Bhubaneswar: Orissa, which experienced at least 83 major floods during the last 153 years, on Wednesday decided to make a formal claim demanding status of the ‘flood-prone’ state, official sources said.

The issue was discussed at the 35th state Flood Control Board meeting here chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

“The State had been ravaged several times due to natural calamities like floods and cyclones, so it should get special financial assistance from the Centre,” Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Manmohan Samal told reporters after the meeting.

Mr. Samal pointed out that while the states like Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal were identified as the ‘flood-prone’ regions, while Orissa was left out.

“We do not know under which parameter the Centre identified flood-prone states,” the Minister said.

While the State was finding it difficult to arrange funds to undertake flood control measures, the less prone states would get nearly Rs. 20,000 crores from Centre as they were identified as flood-prone ones.

Each of the identified states was likely to get Rs. 4,000 crores for undertaking anti-flood measures, sources said. -PTI

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