Odisha Cong says Centre not Naveen govt handled cyclone Phailin

Bhubaneswar: A day after Cyclone Phailin made landfall at Gopalpur, the Congress on Sunday accused the BJD government in Odisha of failing to handle the calamity and asked it to quickly restore supply of electricity, water and essential commodities in affected areas. “While the Centre has done a commendable job by rushing defence personnel and machinery for rescue and relief work in cyclone-hit areas, Odisha government failed to deal with the situation,” Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Jaydev Jena and Union Minister Srikant Jena said. [caption id=“attachment_1170297” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. PTI[/caption] Except a few pockets of VVIP areas in the state capital, the state government has so far failed to restore electricity supply in vast coastal region, they told reporters asking the administration to work on war-footing in order to restore power supply in all areas. Similarly, plight of the people was yet to be addressed as the government made little effort to restore supply of water which remained disrupted in vast areas for the last two days, they said. Hitting out at the Naveen Patnaik government for steep increase in prices of essential commodities and vegetables in the wake of Cyclone Phailin, the Union Minister said no effort was made to check black-marketing and hoarding of articles by unscrupulous elements during the calamity. On the other hand, the Centre geared up and activated the NDMA immediately after getting information about the cyclone, he said, adding the NDMA took stock of the situation and quick steps were taken to make available all possible assistance to the state in dealing with the situation. While the armed forces personnel were rushed both to Odisha and Andhra Pradesh for rescue and relief operation, aircraft and helicopters were kept in a state of readiness, he said. PTI