Cyclone Fani: Odisha government to examine irregularities with house damage assessment report

Odisha government on Monday said it will examine the allegations of irregularities with the accuracy of the house damage assessment in the Cyclone Fani-affected districts of the state. As per the allegations levied by the MLAs, the names of actual cyclone victims were missing from the assessment report.

"We will examine the house damage assessment report given by the officials basing on which assistance is being given to the cyclone-affected people," Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi said in the assembly while replying to a debate.

The statement comes after the members from the ruling BJD and opposition Congress and BJP drew the attention of the government on the "irregularities" in the house damage assessment done by the revenue department officials.

"I have been an MLA for seven times. I found that the house damage assessment has not been done properly. While names of the people having pucca houses are in the list of beneficiaries, the real cyclone victim is left out," said BJD member and former minister Pradeep Maharathy.

Maharathy was supported by Congress member Suresh Routray and BJP's Bishnu Sethi.

Though the members lauded the state government's pre-cyclone management for which human casualty was confined at 64, many others criticised the post-cyclone activities.

"People in the worst-affected Puri district are yet to get electricity though two months have passed after the cyclone hit the state. There has been massive damage to the livelihood of the people and they should be immediately helped," said Congress member Suresh Routray.

Minister Marndi said as many as 5,56,761 houses were damaged after the cyclone Fani hit Puri on May 3 at a wind speed of above 200 kmph.

As the damage has been extensive, the minister said, the state government has sought Rs 5227.68 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).

He said the state government has utilised all its resources for the relief and restoration of the cyclone-hit areas.

Extremely severe Cyclonic storm Fani was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike the Indian state of Odisha since Phailin in 2013.

The second named storm and the first severe cyclonic storm of the 2019 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Fani originated from a tropical depression that formed west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean on 26 April.

Vertical wind shear at first hindered the storm's development, but conditions became more favorable on 30 April.

Fani rapidly intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm and reached its peak intensity on 2 May as a high-end extremely severe cyclonic storm—the equivalent of a high-end Category 4 major hurricane.

Fani weakened before making landfall, and its convective structure rapidly degraded thereafter, degenerating into a remnant low on 4 May, and dissipating on the next day.