M A I N   N E W S

‘We need roofs, not promises’
From T.V.Lakshminarayan
Tribune News Service

ERSAMA (Orissa), Feb 18 — Human patience is on test in this cyclone-battered Ersama block of coastal Orissa as hordes of politicians descend here with tall promises to woo them for the February 22 Assembly elections.

In the worst-hit area in the supercyclone that struck Orissa three months ago, more than 8,000 residents of Ersama perished, thousands became shelterless after their thatched huts were blown away and starvation stared at them after the standing crops were washed away.

“We don’t want promises. All we want is a polythene sheet for a roof, a rag for a dress and a handful of rice for food”, a semi-clad youth, Ranjan Das, working for a non-governmental organisation, said rather philosophically.

He informed that due to the elections, government relief to the cyclone-hit areas had subsided and people had been left to fend for themselves.

The Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, who headed a task force to coordinate relief and rehabilitation measures for Orissa also acknowledged that relief work could have slowed down due to the elections.

Mr Fernandes, who was in Bhubaneswar recently during the course of his election tour in the state, told this correspondent that during elections these things were bound to happen. He felt the Orissa Cyclone Reconstruction Authority, which had been set up, could get into the act only after the elections were over.

Having been left in the lurch by the government agencies, the problems of Ersama residents were further compounded when heavy rain lashed Jagatsinghpur district for three continuous days last week.

With no straw, bamboo and polythene to cover their houses with, several thousands of persons spent the days shivering in the cold. According to reports, around 1.5 lakh polythene-covered mud houses were also damaged in the rain and the sparse rabi crop was affected. Over 2,000 brick kilns have also been damaged in Ersama and neighbouring Kujang.

Vast stretches of kuccha (temporary) roads laid by the Army soon after the cyclone have also been destroyed, making it difficult for political parties to campaign.

Several residents said politicians were not very active this time as they knew that voters were angry.

A recently-formed organisation, Ersama Nabanirman Samiti, has, however, decided to cash in on the elections and force the politicians to work for them.

The samiti launched an agitation from February 15 to press for basic needs like shelter, irrigation, water and food for work in the area.

Asking the people not to keep quiet over the government’s indifference, it has been organising meetings at the village level and exhorting the residents to paralyse government machinery at the block and district level.

The samiti has the support of various panchayats, which have alleged that though over three months have elapsed, no grants have been provided for the reconstruction of houses and cultivation of land.

Vast tracts of land were lying barren due to lack of irrigation. People were being forced to eat paddy seeds, a villager complained.

Rehabilitation is a distant dream for villagers as reconstruction of houses, restoration of electricity, drinking water and irrigation facilities are yet to reach the affected areas.

Widespread resentment was evident when the people gheraoed the block office to press for their demands.

At the political level, representatives of the Congress and the Biju Janata Dal admitted that more could have been done for the cyclone victims. The Congress campaign had focussed on the Centre’s failure to recognise the cyclone as a national calamity and its fallout on the relief and rehabilitation measures. The strategy, however, does not seem to have cut ice with the people as a majority of the residents here blame the Congress government for all ills.

The Congress is now resting on the fallout of the expulsion of a senior BJD leader, Mr Bijoy Mahapatra, from the party. Mr Mahapatra has a mass following in the erstwhile unified Cuttack region, under which Ersama comes. Political infighting in the opposition should see our candidate through, a local Congress worker commented.

The election results are the last thing on the voter’s mind here. Soon after the elections, they will have to face the heat wave that is expected to sweep the area in the coming months. With thousands of trees being uprooted in the area, there is no shade.

Doctors have also warned that the scourge of sunstroke will be more severe this year and chances are that more people would succumb to it in the cyclone-affected areas.

According to Dr B.K.Shee in Bhubaneswar, tents set up for the people in the cyclone-hit areas are unsafe to take shelter during summer. Those living in houses which have polythene sheets as roofs will be more prone to heatstroke, he adds.

Almost all houses in the cyclone-affected areas of 11 districts were destroyed and around 80 per cent of people in these areas have set up temporary houses by making use of polythene sheets.