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Orissa govt fails in cyclone rehabilitation

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government had come to power by criticising the failures of the previous Congress government in providing immediate relief to the cyclone-affected people. However, its own performance in the matter is as bad, if not worse.

At his first press conference after assuming power, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had said that his government would take up the challenge to rehabilitate cyclone-affected people and build one lakh houses for them before the monsoon. Not even a hundred houses have been built.

On the completion of 100 days in office last week, Patnaik and his cabinet colleagues were quite happy to highlight their 'achievements', conveniently ignoring the failures.

"Rehabilitation and reconstruction was a major task as it had come to power by criticising the Congress government's failure on this score," says Jagdish Pradhan of the Sahbhagi Vikash Abhiyan. Former chief minister J B Patnaik says that this government's only achievement is that it has not achieved anything.

The general excuse is paucity of funds. Here, that is not a problem. There is no shortage of funds with various non-governmental organisations tripping over one another to contribute to rehabilitation.

The indifferent attitude of the administration is the main problem. A sample: Of 7.5 lakh families whose houses were completely damaged, more than five lakh are below the poverty line, but only 1.5 lakh houses are to be built.

Hundred days may be a short duration to complete the difficult task, but the government failed to fulfil even a single promise made to the cyclone-affected. For example, the official toll in the cyclone is 10,000, but only about 500 people have been paid a compensation of Rs 10,000.

The government had announced that it would complete 50,000 houses before the monsoon. However, not one is ready. People are preparing to face the monsoon without a roof over their heads. Coastal Orissa was hoping for better treatment from the government.

An embarrassed Panchayati Raj Minister Surendranath Nayak has threatened to resign from the cabinet if work was not completed by July 2000.

However, there is little scope for completing the houses now. "It is difficult to complete the work once the monsoon starts," admitted a senior government official.

The food-for-work programme, restoration of power, reconstruction of breaches caused by the cyclone... nothing is working. The BJD-BJP alliance had even announced a special package to restore normalcy in cyclone-affected areas in its common minimum programme, but there is no sign of the package.

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