Bhubaneswar: Odisha faces natural calamities including floods, drought and cyclone almost every year. To undertake post disaster works, the state government had sought Rs 26,635 crore from the Centre in the past 10 years. However, it got assistance of only Rs 4,119 crore.
In a written reply (Q No 1115) to the Assembly, Revenue Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi Thursday said Odisha government has demanded Rs 26,635.03 crore from the Union government from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) since 2009-10 to date.
However, the Centre has released only Rs 4,119.77 crore during the period. The government has sanctioned Rs 10,544.05 crore to mitigate the calamities that the state witnessed in that period, Marndi said.
In the year 2009-10, the state had asked for Rs 2257.03 crore and got nothing from the Centre.
Of the state’s demand for Rs 2,616.19 crore financial aid during 2010-11, the Centre had released only Rs 560.17 crore.
Similarly, the state government had demanded Rs 3,265.38 crore in 2011-12, Rs 5,832.50 crore in 2013-14 and Rs2,344.99 crore in 2015-16. The government of India had released Rs 678.65 crore during 2011-12, Rs1149.83 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 600.52 crore in 2015-16.
Though the state had sought Rs 777.12 crore in 2014-15, the Centre had not paid any heed to the demand. The state had demanded assistance in 2012-13, 2016-17 and 2017-18 as no natural calamity had hit the state during these three years.
State had witnessed cyclone Titli and drought in 2018-19. To mitigate these two disasters the state had submitted memorandum demanding Rs 2779.32 crore for cyclone Titli and Rs 1527.68 crore for drought. The Centre had released Rs 341.72 crore against the demand for cyclone Titli only. No fund sanctioned by the Centre to mitigate drought that year.
In May this year, cyclone Fani hit the state and destroyed properties worth Rs 5227.68 crore. Against the demand, the Union government has, so far, sanctioned Rs 788.88 crore from NDRF. The state government has released Rs 1524 crore from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and NDRF so far.
