Bhubaneswar: Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), Odisha, Pradip Kumar Jena today shot letters to Collectors of all districts to conduct assessment of damage to private properties including crops due to heavy rain from 23-25 October and payment of eligible assistances under the norms of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)/National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
The letter has asked Collectors to take immediate action in this regard and complete the assessment of damages and enumeration of eligible beneficiaries latest by November 4.
“The assessment of damage to private properties in different sectors such as houses, agriculture (crop loss of 33% & above), sand cast of agriculture land, etc. and enumeration of beneficiaries have to be taken up on priority so that the assistance as per norms of SDRF can be paid to the affected person expeditiously to enable them to repair/ reconstruct their houses and restore livelihood,” the letter says.
The letter further says that the State government has already declared “heavy rain” as state-specific disaster within the local context for which expenditure on relief measures and immediate repair/restoration of damaged public infrastructure shall be met from the SDRF within the limit of 10% of the annual allocation of the SDRF.
The SRC has said in the letter that in case of houses fully damaged or severely inundated for more than two days, the affected households may be provided assistance for clothing and utensils in addition to the prescribed house building assistance and expeditious steps may also be taken for sanction and payment of ex-gratia from the available funds to the next of kins of the persons who have lost their lives.
Since the damage has occurred on a limited scale, the SRC has asked Collectors for disbursement of the eligible assistance out of the available funds without waiting for allotment from his office and has added that funds will be placed after receipt of reports.
“The disbursement must be done through DBT i.e, by way of transfer of the amount to the account of the beneficiaries. Therefore, bank account details (preferably 1st page of the bank passbook) of the eligible beneficiaries must be collected at the time of assessment & enumeration,” the SRC has cautioned in the letter.