It’s a cry for help from those hit by cyclone

With houses, crops and stored food lost, villagers in Odisha urge government to help them out

ONE OF THE SEVERAL villagers who lost everything in the cyclone said that the affected people were given cooked food for two days only. Moreover, other essential items are yet to be provided to them.

Nira Biswal, a resident of Nalabanka village in Odisha’s cyclone-hit Bhadrak district, has lost everything in the cyclone Amphan that hit Digha near Sundarbans on West Bengal and Odisha border on May 20. His thatched house has collapsed. Layers of mud have buried the food he stored in his Jhudi, a square-sized box made with bamboo wires with a coat of cow-dung.

The standing crops, including paddy, in Nira’s nearly one-acre of land got washed away in the torrential rains and the minihorticulture garden that kept his kitchen stove burning doesn’t exist anymore.

Nira and thousands of other people, most of them farmers, in Bhadrak, Balasore, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj districts now await immediate support in terms of food for at least two months to begin their farm activities again for survival.

Pandu Rungi, a farmer of Bhogarai in Balasore district narrated the plight of the farmers.

“We had invested all our savings in paddy crop. High tidal waves inundated the crop. Knee-deep saline water still stands in the farm lands and there is little chance of recovering the crop that was at ripe stage,” said Pandu.

Sachindananda Barik, another farmer, was in all tears when he said, “I had savings of `10,000 which I used to cultivate paddy, the only crop that is grown here in the area. We cannot grow other crops because of the salinity of the soil. However, the heavy downpour, high velocity wind and saline water inundation during the Amphan landfall 20 destroyed the crop.”

Sachidananda said the affected people were given cooked food for two days only. Moreover, other essential items are yet to be provided to them, he lamented.

“Since we have lost house, crops, stored foods and other essentials, we need urgent support for survival for at least two months to start our agriculture activity again. We hope the state government will realise our problem and extend us support to let us stand again on our own feet,” said Sachidananda.

Puni Das of Bhogarai in district has another sorry tale to narrate.

“When the cyclone hit the coast, we were taking shelter in our asbestosroof house thinking that it was better than house with a thatched roof and can withstand the highvelocity wind and downpour. However, within an hour of the landfall, one after another, asbestos sheets started to get uprooted from the woodbards fitted with them and flew in the air. Somehow, we managed to keep ourselves safe in corner of the house under the unrelenting rains,” said Puni.

She urged the government to immediately provide tarpaulin sheets as a temporary measure to repair the house.

In fact, state Special Relief Commissioner P.K. Jena has directed the collectors of affected district for immediate geographical indication tagging of the damaged houses so as to immediately sanction of them pucca houses under various housing schemes, including Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.