The Opposition parties on Monday criticised the Naveen Patnaik government for “slow pace of restoration” in Puri and Khordha districts of Odisha, which were badly affected by Cyclone Fani.
“The State government has utterly failed in carrying out restoration and rehabilitation work in cyclone-affected districts. In many places, people have not received assistance for building houses while power is yet to be restored in several places in Puri,” said Deputy Leader of BJP in Odisha Bishnu Charan Sethi.
“The government failed to provide house building assistance to all cyclone-affected people, whose conditions have worsened during the ongoing monsoon season,” said Congress leader Suresh Routray.
Even Treasury Bench leaders expressed concern over the “slow progress” in providing house building assistance. Senior Biju Janata Dal leader Pradeep Maharathy said enumeration of people who had lost their dwellings appeared to be faulty, because of which many needy people were deprived of assistance.
Addressing these concerns, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marandi assured that the government would look into allegations of faulty house damage assessment.