Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Sunday announced an additional Rs 5 crore assistance to flood-hit Kerala for rescue and relief services.
A sum of Rs five crore was sanctioned earlier.
The additional funds would be sent from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF). The CM has also ordered 500 MT of polythene sheets worth about Rs 8 crore to be sent to Kerala.
Patnaik stated that people of Odisha stood by the flood-affected people of Kerala at this hour of severe distress. He also expressed deep condolences for the lives lost. “Odisha knows what a natural calamity of this magnitude means to the common man,” he said.
The CM is now learnt to have directed the Relief Commissioner of Odisha to remain in touch with the authorities and extend all help to the people from Odisha stranded in Kerala.
The state earlier had sent 244 Fire Service Personnel trained in rescue operations with 65 rescue boats and other equipment to Kerala to help the southern state for rescue operations.
Odisha fire service team
The Odisha Fire Services personnel who went to the flood hit Kerala for rescue and rehabilitation operations from the state Sunday reached out to the aggrieved people in Kerala in the Kottayam and Alappuzha areas of the state to provide them relief, the Director General of Fire, Home Guards Bijay Kumar Sharma informed Sunday. The personnel were seen distributing relief materials and reaching out to the people there in their rescue boats.