More than five lakh people of 1.64 lakh households in Odisha’s coastal districts continue to struggle with hot and humid weather conditions due to lack of power restoration though one month has passed since the cyclone Fani made landfall near Puri on May 3.
The worst affected was Puri district where only 1,51,889 out of 2,91,171 affected electricity consumers (52 per cent) have got back power so far, an official said adding, Fani had completely damaged power infrastructure in the district.
The cyclone had affected a total of 1.65 crore people in 14 districts of the state.
At least 64 persons including 39 from Puri district alone were killed in the calamity.
The official said of the total 25,01,131 affected electricity consumers, power has been restored to 23,36,584 consumers.
The affected districts were Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri, Nayagarh, Khurda, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur.
There has been significant improvement in the drinking water, banking, telecom and other services in the cyclone-hit areas.
Odisha’s school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash, who hails from Puri district, said the authorities have been asked to repair the schools as the summer vacation will be over on June 19.