Zero casualty claims by BJP after cyclone Dana struck Odisha not true: BJD

Bhubaneswar: The opposition BJD in Odisha on Saturday alleged that the ruling BJP’s claims of ‘zero casualty’ after severe cyclonic storm Dana struck the eastern state were false, and it failed to handle the natural calamity in a proper manner.

BJD spokesperson Lekhashree Samantsinghar also claimed that four people died in the state due to the cyclone, which struck the eastern coast early Friday, triggering torrential rain and high-speed winds.

The regional party, headed by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, demanded a white paper from the BJP, mentioning the actual evacuation figure, and the number of people shifted to cyclone shelters.

“The Odisha government’s ‘zero casualty’ claims are false. We have information regarding the death of four people – one in CM Mohan Majhi’s assembly segment in Keonjhar district and three others at Rajnagar in Kendrapara district,” Samantsinghar told a press conference here.

Majhi had Friday said the state had achieved its ‘zero casualty’ mission, with no reports of fatalities or injuries.

Samantsinghar said the state government was aware about the calamity beforehand, but did not act in time.

The BJP was yet to yet to make any comment on Samantasinghar’s remarks.

Lauding the previous BJD government’s manner of handling cyclones, Samantasinghar said: “Our party demands a white paper on the evacuation of people to cyclone centres. First, they said about evacuating 10 lakh people, later the chief minister said the government evacuated three lakh people, then five lakh. There is confusion regarding this figure.

“Let the government also bring a white paper on its ‘zero casualty’ claims. You cannot prove lies to be true by repeating such claims.” The BJD leader also alleged large-scale mismanagement in cyclone shelters.

The state government has become a “laughing stock for creating stories about cyclone Dana”, she said.

Samantsinghar said there were only 23 cyclone shelters in Odisha when the BJD government came to power in the year 2000, and the number of such facilities was 900 in 2024.

“Of the 900 cyclone centres built by the BJD government, 450 facilities were state-of-the-art category, where 1,000 to 1,500 people could be accommodated... Naveen Patnaik created an infrastructure to deal with disasters,” she said.