Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday urged the Centre to sanction five lakh houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G) scheme for the people, whose houses were severely damaged due to cyclone Fani.
According to preliminary estimation, five lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 districts with the major loss occurring in Puri district.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naveen said, “I would request you to kindly consider sanctioning five lakh PMAY special houses initially for the state of Odisha.”
Stating that the state government had mentioned about the house damage during the Prime Minister’s visit May 6, he said, “I reiterate our request for waiver of the permanent wait list (PWL) criteria for this particular allocation and also consider a Centre-State fund sharing pattern of 90:10 as a special case.”
Sunday, the Chief Minister had announced that people whose houses have been damaged fully or substantially will be given pucca houses.
As the monsoon is likely to reach Odisha around June 10, the state government is going ahead with issuing of work orders from June 1 in anticipation of the Centre’s approval of the proposal.
“Your good self had personally witnessed the damage in the cyclone-affected areas during your visit to the state on May 6. A presentation on the extent of damage was also made by the state administration highlighting the dire need for building disaster-resilient housing along the coastal belt of Odisha vulnerable to cyclonic storm (sic),” he said.
“The state government is undertaking a detailed assessment of damaged houses which would be completed soon,” Patnaik said, adding the exact number of houses damaged completely or substantially will be calculated after the survey.
Briefing the media, Pachayati Raj Secretary DK Singh said, the survey will start May 15 and continue for a week. All those people, whose houses were severely or substantially damaged, will be covered under the new scheme. Stating beneficiaries of existing housing schemes can also avail the benefit, Singh said Rs1.20 lakh will be provided for construction of each unit.