Higher education dept asks institutions for complete damage report

BHUBANESWAR: Higher education department on Wednesday asked universities, government and non-government aided colleges of the cyclone affected districts to submit complete damage report of their institutions within seven days.

According to the government notification, 159 blocks and 52 urban local bodies in 14 districts have been affected by the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani. “You are requested to submit the damage report of educational institutions situated in these affected areas,” said a letter of the higher education department issued on Wednesday.

Partha Sarathi Mishra, additional secretary of the department, said they have formed teams of officials to visit the affected institutions and make assessment of the damage. “Besides institutions’ full report, we will send a team to each affected district for this work. They will take photographs of the damages and submit a comprehensive report of damages,” he added.

The department has come up with a preliminary estimation report of loss of around Rs 527 crore due to cyclone Fani. It has submitted the report to the state government. Universities, government and non-government colleges faced loss due to the damage in 12 districts. These were Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Khurda, Puri, Keonjhar, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapada and Mayurbhanj.

Official sources said higher educational institutions under Puri, Khurda and Cuttack districts have witnessed maximum damage in the gale. Damages of these three districts will cross Rs 200 crore. Utkal University, Rama Devi Women’s University, premier BJB Autonomous College, Rajdhani College and other institutions in Bhubaneswar faced heavy loss due to the damage of trees, beautification works and other infrastructures in the universities and colleges.

Similarly, Shri Shri Jagannath Sanskrit University, Puri, SCS College, and other leading institutions in Puri bore the brunt because the cyclone Fani made its landfall near Puri. Institutions like National Law University, Ravenshaw University and other colleges in Cuttack also faced damages in the heavy wind on May 3.

After getting final report, the higher education department will submit it before the state government. Later the government will release funds for the repairmen and construction of damaged portions of the institutions, said an officer of the department.