By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 9, 2017: Odisha government on Wednesday pegged the total cost of damages due to recent floods in five district at Rs 219 crore.

The damage assessment report covered the cost of damages during the floods in five districts namely Kalahandi, Korpaut, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.

The estimate included damages worth Rs 25.37 crore attributed to Water Resources department, Rs 60.79 crore to Public Works, Rs 4.63 crore to Energy, Rs 48 crore to Rural Development, Rs 49.98 crore to Panchayatiraj, Rs 67.35 lakh to animal resources, Rs 10.09 crore to SC/ST, Rs 4.36 crore to Agriculture, Rs 31 lakh to Forests and Environment, Rs 1.66 crore to Women and Child Development, and Rs 3.84 crore to Mass Education department.

The total damage to individual houses has been estimated to be Rs 7.22 crore. Similarly, a total of 23,991 hectare of agricultural land has also been destroyed during the floods, the report added.

The state government has sought Centre’s assistance in reinstating railway bridges, national highways and telephone line connection that were damaged during the floods.

Earlier on July 29, three senior IAS officers – Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department Asit Tripathy, Forest and Environment Additional Secretary Suresh Mohapatra, Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary R Balakrishnan submitted field inspection and damage assessment reports of three districts Rayagada, Bhadrak and Jajpur to the chief minister Naveen Patnaik.