Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government Monday urged the Centre to sanction at least five lakh houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) as the 'extremely severe' cyclone 'Fani' which hit the state on May 3 has damaged lakhs of kutcha houses in its coastal region.

According to preliminary estimation, five lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 districts with the major loss occurring in Puri district. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote, "I would request you to kindly consider sanctioning five lakh PMAY special houses initially for the state of Odisha." Stating that the state government had mentioned about the house damage during the prime minister's visit on May 6, Patnaik wrote, "I reiterate our request for waiver of the permanent wait list (PWL) criteria for this particular allocation and also consider a Centre-State fund sharing pattern of 90:10 as a special case."