Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Sunday claimed that there was neither any casualty nor any major breakdown due to heavy rain which has been lashing the state since a few days.
In a statement, Naveen said even though the rainfall recorded Saturday was more than during the super cyclone and Phailin but no casualty or major breakdown has been reported due to it.
Everything was restored in 24 hours and this shows how Odisha has transformed in the last 18 years, he remarked. “We would have thousands of houses collapsed in normal rains but even with historic record rains we have zero such incidents,” Naveen pointed out, adding “That’s the impact of our rural housing initiative.”
The Chief Minister Saturday convened an emergency meeting at the Secretariat and reviewed the situation in the state arising out of heavy rain over several places triggered by a low pressure in Bay of Bengal.
The CM directed the officials to keep a close vigil on the situation and ordered the control rooms in all the districts to remain open 24X7 to monitor water level in all the major rivers.
The Urban development department and the district administration were asked to use high power pumps to drain out rainwater in the cities and urban areas and if necessary evacuate the people to safer places.
Naveen directed the Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and fire brigade personnel to be alert and ready for any eventuality and asked the administration to provide relief in the affected areas and deploy medical teams.
BMC comes to the rescue
Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) donned battle gear Sunday to redress assorted grievances of the people across the city.
While Saturday the civic body received 98 cases of waterlogging and sanitation matters, 89 cases were resolved by this morning. Secondly, 62 cases involving water level running over one foot and above, across the city, were resolved completely by this morning.
Similarly, Sunday the grievance system registered 44 cases of waterlogging and sanitation of 36 cases (82 per cent) were resolved.
All officials of BMC worked on a war footing to help the citizens across the city Sunday as the state government ordered cancellation of the holiday due to the emergency situation. While 40 engineers camped on the field, 13 nodal officers were deployed with their respective teams in 13 sub-zones. Three sanitation agencies working with 1,050 staff (sweepers, project coordinators and supervisors), two JCBs and five cesspool vehicles were on the job.
Indian Red Cross Society Sunday distributed relief packages at several wards of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. Bhubaneswar (Centre) MLA Bijay Mohanty and Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patasani also joined in and distributed the packages at areas such as Kalpana Pani Tanki basti, Sikharchandi basti, Sabarsahi.
Cooked food was distributed at places across the city in nine wards.
ECoR declares Khurda Road-Bhub line ‘fit’
Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has certified as fit the down line between Khurda Road and Bhubaneswar on which trains were suspended due to water flowing near tracks. The middle line situated at a lower level, however, is still closed.
In its updates Sunday on disruption in train services due to waterlogging and heavy rain, ECoR said that tracks between Hirakud and Godbhaga have been closed due to heavy rain between Rengali and Attabira near Sambalpur. The Railways are patrolling vulnerable areas and have activated the emergency control room.