Bhubaneswar, Oct. 22: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today demanded that the Centre immediately send a high-level team to Odisha to assess the prevailing drought situation here.

During a meeting with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi, the chief minister also asked the Centre to provide financial assistance to the state on the basis of estimates of massive crop loss in the current year.

After the meeting, the chief minister said: "I told Jaitley that half of Odisha is severely affected by drought and asked him to expedite various projects and release of funds at the earliest."

The chief minister also urged the Union finance minister to organise a high-level meeting to end the ongoing stalemate on the Posco steel project. Posco has already indicated that it would move out of the state since it has failed to get the required support from the Odisha government. Even the MoU that it signed with the state government expired five years ago and has not been renewed.

Naveen, who is on a seven-day visit to Delhi, told Jaitley that his state had already announced Rs 1,000 crore special package for the 16 drought affected districts. Earlier, in the first week of this month, the Centre had sent a team to the state to assess the drought situation but Odisha agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy objected to it stating that the Centre should send a high-level team.

Sources said the state government had vehemently objected to the central team's visit, as it comprised officials from the ministry of agriculture and not from the home ministry. According to the state government's announcement, cash incentive (agriculture input subsidy) will be extended to small and marginal farmers who have incurred crop loss of 33 per cent or above at the rate of Rs 6,800 per hectare in rain-fed areas and Rs 13,500 per hectare in areas under assured irrigation. For perennial crops, the assistance will be Rs 18,000 per hectare.

The BJP state unit said Naveen's announcement was only to hoodwink the people.

The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) has demanded that all the 30 districts of the state be declared drought-hit. PCC president Prasad Harichandan said: "All the districts should be brought under that category and the families of the farmers who have committed suicide should be given Rs 10 lakh each as compensation."