Bhubaneswar, 22/11: When chief minister Naveen Patnaik has been emphasizing on the zero casualty during natural disasters and evacuation of people from vulnerable places, ironically disaster management minister Sudam Marandi today said that the government had no proposal to construct cyclone shelters.

The statement of the minister came during the Question Hour in the state assembly on Friday.

The minister said the government had constructed 694 multi-purpose cyclone shelters in six coastal districts (Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Khordha, Nayagarh and Ganjam). The Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA) had built all these shelter houses. Red Cross Society had built another 65 cyclone shelters. Altogether, there are 759 multi-purpose cyclone shelters across the state, said the minister.