Prime Minister cancels Odisha visit

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scheduled visit to Odisha today (November 2) has been cancelled, sources from PMO said. The fresh date on his Odisha tour will be finalised soon, sources added.

According to the earlier information, the Prime Minister was scheduled to come to Odisha to have an aerial look at the Phailin and flood-affected areas of the state tomorrow morning and conduct a review meeting at the airport in noon.

In view of his scheduled visit, a preparatory meeting chaired by chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra was held on Thursday. The Home secretary, DGP, SRC and senior officials of the commissionerate police were present in the meeting. An advance team of Special Protection Group (SPG) also reached the State on Thursday.

The Chief Minister had directed all the ministers to remain present in the State capital. The Special Relief Commissioner and revenue department had been asked to prepare a detailed report of the damages caused by the calamities for apprising the Prime Minister.

The inter-ministerial central team, which was on a 4-day visit to the state to make an on-spot assessment of the damages, today left for New Delhi, leaving behind a controversy. Last night, the team had lauded the relief efforts of the state government.

“During our interaction with the villagers, all of them said they had received relief materials. Nobody complained of not receiving relief,” said Rashmi Goel, who headed the 11-member inter-ministerial team.

Goel, a joint secretary in Union home ministry, had also observed that timely evacuation of people from the vulnerable areas minimised casualty.

The Congress rejected the statement as “unauthorized, incorrect and misleading”.