Stating that the state government is not happy with the announcement made by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee for the cyclone hit people, Revenue Minister Jagannath Patnaik told The Indian Express that the state government has assessed losses due to the cyclonic storm, which hit several coastal districts of Orissa, at over Rs 2000 crore.

In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, the Government has put the damages to public property, clinical infrastructure and houses at around Rs 700 crore. Describing the devastation caused by the cyclone as a National calamity, the memorandum said that lakhs of people are rendered homeless after nearly one lakh houses collapsed.

The memorandum sought an adhoc assistance of Rs 100 crore from theNational Fund for Calamity Relief for relief and rehabilitation measures. It also demanded an additional allotment of Rs 25 crore under the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) sanctioned by the Government of India for Ganjam district.

The memorandum maintained that a central team should be sent to the state to assess the damage and to recommend assistance and demanded that the second installment of EAS should be released by the Centre in advance.

Stating that the state government has already requested for allotment of an additional 25,000 houses under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), the memorandum said that after verification is complete more houses under the IAY may be required over and above the additional allocation sought for now, to cover all collapsed houses of the poor.

The cyclonic storm severely affected Ganjam district including Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Gopalpur towns and about 15,000 villages. The memorandum said that 18 out of 22 blocks with a population of two million have been affected inGanjam district alone. Incessant rainfall together with flood in rivers also affected Gajapati, Khurda, Puri, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which submitted a memorandum requested the Prime Minister to direct the state government to constitute an all party calamity committee to monitor the relief and rehabilitation programmes in affected areas. The BJD assesses the total loss due to the cyclone at over Rs 2,000 crore and demanded release of an interim assistance of Rs 100 crore to meet the immediate relief and rehabilitation works. It said that additional plan assistance over and above normal grants should be released after the assessment is done by the central team. It also demanded waiver of agricultural loans to peasants and payment of fresh loans.

The memorandum said that farmers should be provided free agricultural inputs and should be exempted from paying water and electricity charges.

The BJP state unit which also submitted amemorandum to the Prime Minister demanded that the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people who had lost their houses in the cyclonic storm should be provided with cluster houses under the Samagrika Awas Yojana.