Odishatv Bureau
Bhubaneswar: The Orissa government today decided to extend the provision of relief for 10 more days to help the flood-hit BPL families while the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) urged party president Sonia Gandhi to assist the calamity-affected people.

Though the state government had suspended relief operation in flood affected districts after water receded from villages, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed extension of relief provision for BPL families, said special relief commissioner P K Mohapatra. Patnaik took this decision at a stock taking meeting after visiting some of the flood affected villages in nearby Khurda district earlier in the day. "During his visit, several BPL families had demanded extension of relief," said an official accompanying the chief minister to Balianta and Balipatna blocks in Khurda district.

Stating that about seven lakh BPL families would be benefited from the government`s decision to extend the relief, the SRC said about 56 lakh families in 21 districts were hit in the two spells of floods during September. Meanwhile, the state government claimed that it had already distributed house damage assistance to the affected families in 17 of the 19 districts hit by the first phase of floods. Similarly, house damage assistance had also been distributed in five districts hit by the second spell of floods, the SRC said.

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