Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday demanded 15 lakh houses under PMAY for the people affected by cyclonic storm Fani.
The area is comprised of tribal districts and KBK districts and Mr. Patnaik in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked for a sanction of 1.84 lakh PMAY-G (Special) houses for the Cyclone Fani affected families and 13 lakh houses for non-Fani affected tribal districts and KBK districts.
He also requested to migrate 5.09 lakh data from the RH portal to PWL of PMAY(G) and to allow the opening of the Awaas+ window for the entire state for a period of one month.
He also thanked the Prime Minister for sanctioning 8.17 Lakh PMAY(G) houses to Odisha, but drew his attention to the anguish of many families of KBK and tribal-dominated areas of the State and also the families who have lost their houses in cyclone FANI.
The Chief Minister said the Union Ministry of Rural Development, allowed identification of eligible left out families through Awaas+ by March 7, 2019. But the State could identify only 35,000 families within this stipulated period because of pre-occupation of Government machinery in preparatory work for General Elections-2019, network connectivity issues, and LWE violence in some pockets of State.
When MoRD opened the Awaas+ window for only the 14 districts affected by cyclone FANI, another 7.87 Lakh families were identified through State developed RH portal. It was discovered that 5.09 lakh families in 16 districts predominantly tribal districts and KBK districts of the state not affected by cyclone FANI were also eligible.
The Chief Minister said these families may be covered against PMAY(G) target by migrating their data from RH portal to PWL of PMAY(G). He reminded Prime Minister’s pledge during May 2019 to allot 5 Lakh PMAY-G (Special) houses to FANI affected families, and the Chief Minister pointed out that there are 1.84 Lakh families whose houses got damaged by cyclone FANI and they are not otherwise entitled to availing normal PMAY(G) houses.
These families may be considered for PMAY-G (Special) houses waiving the pre-condition of their names to be in PWL of PMAY (G), Mr.Patnaik said. He also stated that there might be some more eligible families left out during the survey through Awaas+ and RH portal.
What is Cyclone Fani?
Cyclone Fani was a very severe cyclonic storm and was the worst tropical cyclone to strike the Indian state of Odisha since the 1999 Odisha cyclone. 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 the storm triggered on 30 April and it intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm and reached its peak intensity on 2 May. Fani slightly weakened before making its landfall, and its convective structure rapidly degraded thereafter, degenerating into a remnant low on 4 May, and dissipating on the next day. It was followed by Cyclone Amphan in 2020 which caused greater prevalent destruction.
Prior to Fani’s landfall, authorities in India and Bangladesh moved at least a million people each from areas within Fani’s projected path onto higher ground. Fani killed at least 89 people in eastern India and Bangladesh and caused about US$8.1 billion in damages in both India and Bangladesh, mostly in Odisha, in India.