Bhubaneswar, Nov. 12: The Odisha government today submitted a memorandum to the Union ministry of home, seeking a financial assistance of Rs 771.12 crore to meet the losses due to cyclone Hudhud that had hit four districts of the state in October.

Last week, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and home minister Rajnath Singh and demanded an immediate financial package of Rs 500 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund as an interim relief to Odisha to take up various projects in the cyclone-hit areas.

According to the memorandum, Odisha has suffered a loss of Rs 4,949.38 crore due to the cyclone. Nearly 15 districts, including Gajapati, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Khordha, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Puri, Rayagada and Dhenkanal were affected due to the cyclone. Out of the four districts had suffered brunt of the cyclone.

Nearly 9,657 villages and around 33.44 lakh people were affected. The total crop area affected was nearly 2.48 lakh hectares, and the estimated loss to the crop was Rs 582.07 crore. Nearly 44,413 houses were damaged in the storm, while three people and 670 animals died.

Special relief commissioner P.K. Mohapatra said: “We are expecting a ministerial committee to reach here to assess the loss caused due to the cyclone. The state government will request the team to visit the four affected districts.”

However, Odisha is yet to get the financial package from the Centre due to Phailin that had hit the state last year.

The Centre had only released Rs 1,000 crore as an interim relief to this effect.