Bhubaneswar:
An inter-ministerial central team visited some parts of Odisha on Wednesday for an on the spot assessment of the damage caused by floods in the state in August, officials said.
The six-member team led by Joint Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Praveen Vashista, is on a two-day visit to the state.
It includes members from the ministries of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, water resources, road transport and highways, rural development and finance, the officials said.
The team, divided into two groups, toured several flood-affected areas of Bhadrak and Kendrapara districts, they said.
Its members are scheduled to visit Jajpur and Puri districts on Thursday, a senior official said.
In Bhadrak district, the team members went to Dhamnagar and Bhandaripokhari blocks and held discussions with senior officials as well as affected villagers, he said.
“The team members were provided with information regarding damage caused by the flood,” Bhadrak district Collector Gyana Das said.
The central team members visited several villages in Derabis, Pattamundai, Aul and Rajnagar areas of Kendrapara district to take stock of the situation.
“They held discussions with senior officials, villagers and farmers to obtain information on the nature and extent of damage caused by the flood,” said an official.
After completing their visit to the flood-hit areas, the team members will have a meeting with top state government officials here on Thursday afternoon.
The wrap-up meeting will be chaired by the chief secretary and will be attended by the additional chief secretary, special relief commissioner, development and agriculture production commissioners and secretaries to the disaster management, officials said.
They said that the state government is likely to submit a detailed report about the damage caused by the flood to the team.
The state government had requested the Centre to send a team to make an assessment of the damage caused by the flood in different districts.
