"I visited more than a dozen villages in worst hit Balasore district. It was a super flood. The government was not prepared. They don't have required food for the victims. There are places where not a single government official has reached," former water resources minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bijoy Mohapatra told IANS.
"Large numbers of people are living without food and water for the past three days," he said.
Hundreds of flood victims blocked roads and staged angry demonstrations in parts of Mayurbhanj and Khurda districts to protest alleged irregularities in the distribution of relief material.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reviewed the situation and ordered officials to book those involved in the plunder of relief materials under the stringent National Security Act.
Patnaik also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to release an additional Rs.1,000 crore advance from the central government for relief and restoration work in the areas affected by the cyclone and subsequent flood.
"I request you to release an advance of Rs.1,000 crore over and above the corpus of Rs.523 crore available in the State Disaster Response Fund for 2013-14 for relief and restoration work of immediate nature," Patnaik wrote to the prime minister.
"A detailed report in the form of a memorandum shall be presented after assessment of the damage," said the letter, which was sent Wednesday.
The severe tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal struck Saturday night near Gopalpur in Ganjam district, and has left a trail of destruction in the coastal districts of the state.
Although damage to properties was estimated at several crore rupees, the loss of lives was minimal compared to the 1999 super cyclone that left over 10,000 dead.
The toll from the latest cyclone and flooding rose to 36 as the government Wednesday confirmed eight more deaths due to floods.
The worst cyclone affected districts are Ganjam, Puri, Gajapati and Khurda, while the worst flood hit districts are Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur.
Pradeep Mohapatra, state Special Relief Commissioner, told IANS that the government is yet to assess the losses caused by the disaster.
The state energy department said loss to the power sector alone, according preliminary assessment, is about Rs.900 crore.
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