Puri: Six years after the Cyclonic Storm Phailin ravaged the coastal areas of the state, the government Thursday provided work orders for construction of cyclone-resistant houses to 18 affected families of Brahmagiri and Krushnaprasad blocks in the first phase.
Altogether 10 families from Brahmagiri and eight from Krushnaprasad were provided with the work orders at a special programme at the office of district land acquisition officer in the Holy City here. Brahmagiri MLA Sanjay Das Burma, District Collector Jyoti Prakash Das, sub-collector Bhabataran Sahu, Brahmagiri block development officer (BDO) Debraj Sethi and his Krushnaprasad counterpart Ashok Kumar Mohanty were present at the event.
According to sources, the state government would issue work orders to as many as 3,046 Phailin-affected families of the two blocks in different phases. The beneficiaries would get Rs 3 lakh each for construction of cyclone-resistant houses.
It is worth mentioning here that the houses of several thousand villagers of the two blocks were damaged by the cyclonic storm in 2013. The state government, in association with the World Bank, had decided to provide financial assistance to the affected families for construction of cyclone-proof houses.
However, the housing assistance could not be distributed among the affected families of Brahmagiri and Krushnaprasad due to some procedural issues.
Protesting the denial of housing assistance, the affected families had launched an agitation under the banner of Phailin Prapidita Kriyanusthan Committee.
The state government had assured the agitators of providing assistance following a meeting with the latter at state Secretariat September 15, 2017, sources said.
The affected families were forced to resume their agitation after the state government failed to provide them the work orders within the promised time period, sources added.
“The housing assistance could not be provided to the cyclone-affected families due to some mistakes in the survey process,” Das Burma said.