|
DEVELOPMENT:
ORISSA
The
Aid's Down to a Trickle
With
no money, the Government is content building only castles in the air.
The help that poured in initially from far and wide is down to a trickle.
The World Bank promised that it would channelise Rs 435 crore on an urgent
basis provided the state created an autonomous agency for overseeing rehabilitation.
The Government set up the Orissa Disaster Mitigation Authority-which,
incidentally, runs from the penthouse of a swanky highrise-but the expectations
it raised have fallen flat. In anticipation of the World Bank money, the
Government parked Rs 43 crore as its share with the agency. However, not
a penny has arrived so far. Consequently, not a single rupee from the
state treasury has been spent. Out of the envisaged Rs 7,000 crore for
reconstruction, the state has got only Rs 828 crore-all of it from the
Centre.
Orissa has
been let down by almost everyone concerned. The 8,495 lamps some NGOs
will light in memory of those who were killed will do little to brighten
things up. Barring a few, most of these NGOs have done little other than
hog publicity. One NGO based in Bhubaneswar is still ferrying journalists
for free to the devastated regions. Another has completed a documentary
film for screening abroad to attract donors. Almost all are currently
busy in organising seminars, workshops and rallies to stay in the limelight
while marking the anniversary. Of the 3.8 lakh houses that are to be reconstructed,
the NGOs' share is only 5,000 but given their blitzkrieg, they have stolen
a march over the state Government.
Much of
the blame for the skewed perceptions rests with the Government itself.
It has changed as many as five special relief commissioners-the vital
cog in the administrative wheel so far as reconstruction work goes-since
the cyclone struck, hampering progress. Its performance on the ground
has also been pathetic. Rebuilding Ersama was its litmus test and a young
IAS officer of the rank of special additional district magistrate was
asked to spearhead the task initially. But the officer fell out with the
local ruling party legislator following which he was shifted out. The
reigns of the block administration have been vested with a BDO since.
To the ruling
politicians, the survivors are more voters than victims. One upshot has
been that the worst-hit regions are treated on a par with those affected
the least. Though Ersama took the worst knocking, its share of houses
to be rebuilt under the Indira Awas Yojana numbers 2,500 out of the first
lot of 1.5 lakh sanctioned. The rest have gone to other districts irrespective
of what the damage has been and how vulnerable they are to possible disasters
in future.
Within Ersama
itself, the distribution has been proportionate to the political clout
the locals wield. Sarabapatho, a village of Bengali migrants, was entirely
washed out, yet no government houses are being built there. Scores of
concrete houses are being built instead in the adjoining village of Saraba,
though the damage has been comparatively less.
With funds,
strategy and urgency lacking, hope is getting scarcer by the day. The
Government has failed to stand up to the debilitating aftermath of the
cyclone. Nor has it prepared the state for the possibility of another
disaster. Despite communication links coming a cropper last year, it is
yet to procure satellite phones or ham radio sets. A proposal worth Rs
10 crore to acquire rescue boats and mechanised road cleaners is still
pending sanction. And of the 500 cyclone shelters planned, not one has
been built so far. The state paid a terrible price for being unprepared
earlier. God forbid, but the next time round will be even more devastating-if
lessons are not learnt quickly.
Read "Storm
Signal", a study of disaster mismanagement in India.
Pg.
2
Top
|
INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta voices the despair of a community that Jyoti Basu forcibly converted into a diaspora in his 23 years of zero-contribution rule. 
