DISASTER RELIEF: Governor misinformed on storm – Damage done, officials race to correct relief figures – atlast someone cares ?!!

A house destroyed in the April 13 storm at Suron village in Itahar block. (Photo by Nantu Dey)

FROM THE TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

Raiganj, April 28: The North Dinajpur district administration has been left embarrassed as the report it has handed over to the governor on the damage caused by the April 13 storm and the details of the relief given to the affected people is incomplete and contains factual errors.

The district authorities have now embarked on an exercise to clear the errors and submit a correct picture of the devastation before queries start pouring in from the Raj Bhavan.

After visiting two villages in the least-affected Hemtabad block on April 26, governor M.K. Narayanan had sat with district officials and discussed the relief operations. He was handed the 11-page report that contained a map depicting the path of the tornado-like storm and the damage it had unleashed.

The storm had killed 43 people and flattened thousands of houses in the district.

An earthen shelf to store paddy is what remains of a hut at Suron. (Photo by Nantu Dey)

On Page 3 of the report, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, it has been mentioned that the storm left a trail of severe destruction in the four blocks of Raiganj, Karandighi, Hemtabad and Kaliaganj. The report also speaks about damage caused in Goalpokhar II, but is mum on the number of houses flattened in the Itahar block.

The report maintains that in Karandighi block, 26,000 huts had been damaged totally or partially and 29,330 tarpaulin sheets were distributed, far in excess of the actual number of families rendered homeless.

The Congress karmadhakshya in charge of relief in the Karandighi panchayat samiti, Karuna Dasgupta, said all the 13 gram panchayats in the block had been totally affected.

“About 60,000 huts had been flattened in the block, but a far less figure was put in the report. The report shows that tarpaulin sheets delivered to the block were far more than the required number, implying that the panchayats have stolen around 3,000 of them,” she said.

During Narayanan’s visit, only a few people who had been distributed relief were allowed to meet him, leaving most of the affected villagers fuming.

The people of the worst-affected Raiganj and Karandighi blocks, where 19 people had been killed, were kept away from the governor.

Governor MK Narayanan on a disaster relief fact finding tour with BL Meena and KL Tamta ?!!

They were denied audience with Narayanan, apparently to cover up the administration’s failure to provide succour to the people who had been made to spend days under the open sky after the calamity.

Tension had run high at the block and panchayat offices in Karandighi, Hemtabad and Raiganj after the storm. Relief-seekers tried to snatch tarpaulin sheets to make some sort of shelter.

On April 19, villagers attacked policemen in front of the Sitgram gram panchayat office where they had gathered to collect tarpaulin sheets. The police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells when three of their men were badly injured in the attack.

Sources in the district administration said the violence, a result of the pent-up anger of the people, had forced the authorities to arrange for a safe route for the governor.

The Congress targeted the district administration for the latest episode in a series of botches made by the officials after the storm.

“The officials had not toured the areas before compiling the data and gave wrong figures to hide their inefficiency. We demand that they prepare a fresh report showing the ground reality and send it to the governor,” said Dasgupta.

The state civil defence minister, Srikumar Mukherjee, who had been monitoring the situation in the affected areas, expressed his surprise at the errors in the report. “I am surprised at the report which mentions that no houses have been damaged in Itahar block. I cannot say how this report was prepared,” said the CPI minister.

The district magistrate, Sunil Dandapat, said the report had been “drawn up in haste”. “We had collected the data from the panchayat level and prepared the report. Some errors have crept in, but we are presently trying to rectify them as fast as possible.”