Bhubaneswar, Sept. 24: With the flood situation in north Orissa turning grave, the Orissa government today sought the Centre’s help for rescue and relief operations.
“This morning I spoke to Union home minister P. Chidambaram and defence minister A.K. Antony and requested them to send choppers to carry out relief and rescue operations,” said chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who made an aerial survey of the marooned areas of Jajpur, Bhadrak and Kendrapara districts today.
Describing the situation as “grave”, Naveen said he had also tried to speak to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “but he was in the USA”.
“It’s a very strong flood in the Brahmani and Baitarini system,” said the chief minister adding that the distribution of relief materials was on since yesterday.
All steps had been taken to provide shelter and relief to the marooned people, he said.
Orissa disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patro said air-dropping of relief materials had been started with the help of three choppers. “Three more helicopters from Indian Navy and Indian Air Force are expected to arrive here tomorrow,” he said.
“Our first priority is rescue and relief. Damage assessment will be undertaken after the floodwater recedes,” said Patro.
Special relief commissioner P.K. Mohapatra said that according to preliminary reports, more than 15.4 lakh people living in 2,362 villages in 46 blocks of eight districts had been affected by the current floods in the Brahmani and Baitarini river systems. As many as 992 villages remained marooned. The current flood had claimed six lives and one person was missing, he said.
Orissa water resources secretary S.C. Mohapatra said that so far, 18 major breaches had been reported on river embankments (12 on the Bairani embankment and four on the Kharasrota embankment).
He said the water level in the Brahmani system was expected to rise and the waters in the Baitarini system might fall.
Reports from Jajpur said the flood in Jajpur district was grave with unprecedented rise of water level in the Baitarani, Brahmani, Kharasrota and Budha rivers. Instead of floodwaters receding, the water level in all most all 10 blocks in the district are steadily rising, inundating more and more areas.
Official reports said over 4 lakh people of 459 villages in 156 gram panchayats in Bari, Barachana, Dharmasala, Rasulpur, Jajpur, Dasarathapur, Danagadi, Sukinda, Korei and Binjharpur blocks in the district had been hit by the third successive flood. Most of the villages which were encircled by the floodwaters have been cut off.
The district headquarter town remains cut off from the rest of the state as the bridge over the Budha river near Rudhia village was washed away yesterday, while Bari remains cut off as Baruan-Kalamatia road was inundated by floodwaters.
Bari block in the district, in which four breaches have been occurred, is the worst hit in the current flood. “Bari block has been hit very seriously. We have alerted local people to move to safer places, as water levels of both the Brahmani and the Kharasrota are rising,” said Jajpur collector Anil Kumar Samal.
Reports from Bhadrak said the district continued to reel from floods even though the water level of most of the rivers was receding.
Dhamnagar block was the worst hit, as nearly 24 gram panchayats out of the 30 are badly affected.
Road connection between Bhadrak and Aradi via Dabol has been completely snapped.
“Several villages have been submerged especially in Dhamnagar and Bhandaripokhari blocks. It has been very difficult to assess the damage, as areas are submerged under floodwaters at the moment,” said district emergency officer Suryakanta Padhi.
The other major affected blocks of the district were Bhadrak Sadar, Bhandaripokhari, Chandbali and Tihidi.
In Balasore district, waters in the Budhabalanga, Sono and Kansabansha rivers, which had caused devastation in several areas under seven blocks, started receding. The Subarnarekha’s waters were rising and flowing above the danger mark (10.36 metre).
(Additional reporting by Amulya Kumar Pati and Sibdas Kundu)
