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| Feb 7, 2000 | ||
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| ORISSA Where is the Relief ? Three months after the killer cyclone devastated its coastal areas, the victims continue to live in despair as relief comes but only in a trickle. By Ruben Banerjee
Three months after the high-speed death wind that swept away entire villages and over 9,000 unsuspecting people to their watery graves besides leaving behind an unprecedented trail of destruction all along a 480-km stretch, Orissa remains as much in ruins as in the cyclone's immediate aftermath. For a month or so after the disaster struck, the state did initiate a hectic relief and rescue mission, feeding millions and successfully stalling the outbreak of an epidemic. But relief and rescue do not go on endlessly and rehabilitation and reconstruction have to start soon. But sadly, little is happening on either count. "First the tidal waves gobbled us. Now it is despair that is swallowing us," laments Bijoy Sahu, sarpanch of the Jirrailo gram panchayat in Ersama, the block on the state's coast that took the worst pounding and accounted for over 7,000 deaths. Similar despair sweeps the entire coastline. For, across all the 14 affected districts, there is little or nothing happening at all. As the gap between need and relief widens, the outlook for Orissa's reconstruction looks bleak. Against 19 lakh blankets needed only 4.2 lakh have been supplied; 19 lakh polythene sheets required, but only 14 lakh have come in; 20,000 km of roads damaged, just 3,000 km have been repaired; 12,000 school buildings to be rebuilt, only 6,000 have got attention; 19 lakh houses need to be rebuilt, but money promised by various sources will provide for just 7.5 lakh and that too is yet to come in; worst of all, ex gratia compensation to the next of kin of the dead remains undistributed -- Rs 38.2 crore came from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, but only Rs 1.5 crore has been doled out so far. Most have not been given the death certificates that can enable them to firm up their claims. With elections to the state Assembly scheduled next month, the priorities of the administration are changing. Further, as the Congress-ruled state accuses the Centre of not helping much, the BJP-led Union Government holds the state guilty of goofing up.
Caught in the high-decibel crossfire, the truth lies somewhere in between. While funds are scarce, the state surely hasn't used to the optimum whatever little it had in hand. No money has meant no succour for the hapless victims and the NGOs are having a field day with whatever little they are doing. Having completed a project worth Rs 1.5 lakh in aid of the victims, one voluntary organisation continues to ferry journalists from Bhubaneswar for publicity. Another brought in film personalities from Mumbai and hosted lavish dinners and press conferences to earn a good name. Forget sumptuous meals, for over 20 million of the victims the only roof over their heads is the open sky. Another 10 million are jobless. And every sunset still swathes Ersama in darkness as electricity is yet to be restored fully. Even daybreak brings little cheer. Collapsed schools, washed away homes, breached roads and uprooted trees is all that is left today. Once well-to-do villages have now been reduced to shanties, with inhabitants fending off the winter chill under polythene sheets strung from bamboo poles. Forget bullocks to till the land, there is no money or even seeds to grow fresh crops. "Our future is as dark as our present," rues Prabhakar Hazra, a resident of Sarabapato village in the Ersama heartland. In district after district it's the same story. In Puri, for instance, the crop loss has been estimated at Rs 217 crore, 1.33 lakh houses and 2,300 schools need to be rebuilt, it needs Rs 27 crore for roads and Rs 17 crore for immediate repair of hospitals. All that Puri has managed so far is a commitment for 20,000 houses from NGOs and Rs 5 crore for the hospitals. "It's never easy to cope with disasters of such a scale," explains U.N. Behera, managing director of the hastily set up Orissa Disaster Management Authority (ODMA) for integrated planning, mobilisation of resources and efficient execution of relief and rehabilitation. Ironically, the autonomous odma held its first meeting only last week and is just about in the process of setting up an office. The biggest problem is resources and the state's wish-list for money is nothing short of Rs 7,000 crore. In the first week of January, Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal wrote to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, protesting how not a penny had flowed into the state coffers beyond December 2. Until that day, the state had received Rs 500 crore from the National Fund for Calamity Relief (NFCR). In January the Centre pledged another Rs 860 crore. The unstated thrust of Biswal's missive was that the Centre was holding back money as the state was going to the polls.
Biswal's charge surprised Finance Ministry officials. "They (the state Government) are merely looking at the colour of money. They want the entire amount from the NFCR. We cannot pledge the entire amount from one source. Our budget would go bust," explains an official. He said the Rs 860 crore pledged by the Union cabinet was the sum total of programmes to be undertaken by the Ministry of Rural Development. These include food for work (Rs 271 crore), rural housing (Rs 450 crore) and other programmes (Rs 130 crore) With its own coffers empty, Orissa has knocked on other doors as well. The British Department for International Development (DFID) has promised Rs 500 crore in instalments and the World Bank a loan of another Rs 435 crore. The gap between what is needed and what has been assured still remains huge: over Rs 4,000 crore. Worse still, the pledges are yet to translate into money. "For the time being, we are only building castles in the air," admits a top bureaucrat. Not that money alone would have solved the state's problems overnight. Orissa for one has the unenviable track record of unspent funds. "Even Latur took time to rebuild. Give us some time too," argues state Revenue Minister Jagannath Patnaik. There are promises and pledges galore. With Central funds and help from sundry agencies, the state will build at least 7.5 lakh homes. Food-for-work schemes with an outlay of Rs 275 crore could generate livelihood for lakhs. There are plans and more plans: roads to be relaid, embankments to be reconstructed, school buildings to be rebuilt, employment opportunities to be generated. On the ground, however, they mean little. The state's inability to stand by the victims is indeed shocking. Meanwhile, tall claims made earlier by Congress-ruled states to adopt the affected districts have proved hollow. Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland made announcements with great fanfare, but are yet to show up in the state. The relief coming from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Rajasthan is valuable but marginal. The Orissa Government too is guilty of indulging in political gimmicks. Instead of concentrating on the badly affected districts, it added more and more areas to please all by offering doles. With relief spreading thin, the sufferers are the ones truly affected. "If the cyclone was bad, the aftermath has been worse," regrets Jagadanand of the Orissa Disaster Mitigation Mission, a consortium of 55-odd NGOs. As mega rehabilitation plans are being fine-tuned and funds awaited, the cyclone victims remain high on deprivation and low on hope for the time being. |
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