Exam fees waived in flood-affected areas

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Sunday decided to waive the examination fees for High School, Plus-Two and Plus-Three students of the flood-affected areas. The decision was taken at the post-flood review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.The fee waiver will be applicable to Government and fully-aided high schools, Plus-Two and Plus-Three colleges in the flood-hit areas. The Higher Education department has been asked to instruct the colleges not to collect tuition fees from the students, Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra said.The department, along with School and Mass Education department, has been asked to place the demands for supplementary budget provision. As normalcy returned to low-lying areas, relief operation has been closed, Mohapatra said.The focus of the Government now is on repair and restoration of rural infrastructure and disbursement of house building assistance to the affected families.The Rural Development department has repaired 789 out of 1,735 rural roads damaged due to the floods. Similarly, 567 out of 830 damaged rural bridges have been repaired and restoration works on the remaining bridges are on full swing.The meeting was informed that the first phase disinfection of tubewells is complete and the second phase has already resumed. However, tubewells of several villages in Aul and Rajkanika blocks in Kendrapara district, Bari and Dasarathpur blocks in  Jajpur district and Dhamnagar block in Bhadrak district are yet to be disinfected. These three districts remained under flood water for a long time.About 21,000 tubewells got submerged in the first spell of flood in the Mahanadi river system while water of another 8,000 tubewells was not fit for consumption after the second spell of floods.