Dikhyaa Mohanty 
In his inspection of Cyclone Dana’s damage to the Special Relief Commissioner’s (SRC) office on Sunday, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi instructed the relevant officials to provide an assessment report by November 2. According to him, this would make it possible to help the impacted individuals right away. The Chief Minister evaluated the situation and the restoration efforts in the evening after flying by helicopter to the impacted regions on Sunday afternoon.
Following the evaluation, the Chief Minister told the media that nearly all of the more than 8 lakh people who were residing in 6,210 shelters have now gone back to their homes. There are still people in the shelters from a few gram panchayats where there is water logging. Currently, only 30,000 people are staying in 470 shelters.
Giving information on power supply, the Chief Minister said that so far, the power supply of about 98 per cent of electricity consumers has been normalised. A total of 22,84,000 consumers were affected, while power supply has been restored to 22,32,000 consumers so far. A few gram panchayats in Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts are still submerged. Despite this, efforts are on to restore the power supply in these places. After the water recedes, the power supply will be restored to all places. Majhi said that more than 7,000 employees are engaged in normalising power supply. He added that people are voluntarily cooperating with the workers in restoring power supply. In order to expedite the cleaning work in the municipalities and notified area councils in the affected areas, cleaning workers have been brought in from the unaffected areas, the Chief Minister said.
Informing about the damages to the agricultural sector, the Chief Minister said that initial estimates indicate that in the agricultural sector, crops have been damaged in about 2,21,800 acres of farmland in 880 village panchayats and 4,100 villages in 12 blocks of Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj districts. He said that assistance will be provided after the actual report comes in.
Likewise, the Health Department sent out 335 medical teams. 4,871 pregnant women in all were sent to maternity homes and health institutions. 2,529 children have been born there over this time, according to the chief minister. According to him, practically all of the obstructions on all of the main routes have been taken out, and there are now no traffic issues. The Chief Minister said that there was no longer a risk of flooding, stating that although the Budhabalang River was over the danger threshold, the water level has now dropped. It is currently below the danger threshold. According to him, the water level has dropped from 8.13 meters to 7.20 meters.
The Chief Minister stated that the fire department acted immediately after receiving around 6,000 phone complaints regarding trees being uprooted in people’s homes in different locations as a result of the storm. In response to the hurricane, the Chief Minister expressed gratitude to the Indian government for their assistance. He claimed that enough NDRF troops had been dispatched by the Union government to rescue victims during the cyclone. They have played a crucial role in saving lives. “I express my gratitude to the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister for this,” the Chief Minister stated.
The Chief Minister said that “Through you, I thank the District Collectors and all the employees of the concerned districts. Especially, my special thanks to the District Collectors of Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore and Mayurbhanj.” The review meeting was attended by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, Development Commissioner Anu Garg, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Nikunj Bihari Dhal, Special Relief Commissioner Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh, Director General of Police YB Khurania and Principal Secretaries of various departments.
