Bhubaneswar: Odisha apprehends 30-40% damage to standing paddy crop which is in the flowering stage under the impact of rains caused due to Cyclone Bulbul.
“The main thing is as we have earlier said this is the flowering season of paddy crop. Around 30-40% of paddy crop which is now in the fields is apprehended to get flattened and inundated,” informed Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy to reporters here soon after attending a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary of the Union Government through video conferencing.
The Chief Secretary added that he has apprised the Cabinet Secretary of that in the meeting.
“We will request for sending an advance team to assess the damage as the Home Ministry had done earlier after Cyclone Fani. Later after we submit our memorandum on the damages they can come and we will place our demand for the amount payable by the Central government towards damages,” Tripathy said.
The Chief Secretary stated that the State has received the 135-185mm rain and six blocks have received maximum rainfall and added that at Dhamra has recorded a wind speed of 110kmph.
Tripathy explained that the wind speed ranged between 70 to 110 kmph and there have been no reports of human or livestock casualty and added that roads will be cleared by evening as an adequate number of men and machinery from ODRAF, NDRF and Fire Service have been deployed in the operation to clear fallen trees.
He further said that 11 KV power conductors have suffered damage at some places and action is being taken to restore them.
Informing that 2,500 people were shifted to a few shelters as a precautionary measure he said they will be leaving for their homes this evening.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradip Kumar Jena who was also present in the meeting said that teams have already left for the field to assess crop damage in the affected areas barring Basudevpur, Chandbali and Balasore district where strong wind is still blowing.
“According to the rough estimate given by them in the 5-6 affected districts paddy land constitute 6 lakh hectares around 30-40% of the land out of that has suffered damage as per their preliminary estimates,” Jena informed.