Didn't seek financial aid to not burden Centre amid COVID-19: Patnaik

BHUBANESWAR: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the damage caused in the state by Cyclone Yaas here on Friday, Odisha did not ask for any immediate financial assistance to manage the situation. Instead, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said the state would manage the crisis on its own without burdening the Centre in view of the pandemic.

“As the country is at the peak of Covid pandemic, we have not sought any immediate financial assistance to burden the central government and would like to manage it through our own resources to tide over the crisis,” Patnaik tweeted after attending the review meeting chaired by Modi.

“We are frequented by such climate hazards every year. Highlighted Odisha’s demand for disaster resilient power infrastructure and resilient coastal protection with storm surge resilient embankments,” part of another tweet by the Odisha CM read.

After landing at the airport earlier in the day, PM Modi chaired a meeting on the cyclone situation which was also attended by Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Chandra Sarangi before taking an aerial survey of some of the worst affected areas in Balasore and Bhadrak.

Sarangi said the PM may announce a financial package later in the evening for Odisha and West Bengal.

Notably, Odisha wants underground cable network for power distribution so that there is no or less damage in case of cyclone.

Special relief commissioner Pradeep Jena said Odisha would assess the damage within a week. Though the cyclonic storm made landfall near Balasore with much less intensity than predicted more than 120 villages were waterlogged. Due to incessant rain in the upper catchment, Baitarani and Subarnarekha are in spate. The state anticipates medium flood in Baitarani which may affect low-lying areas in Bhadrak and Jajpur.