ELECTION 99
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
ELECTIONS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

The guilty in Orissa

When a cyclone lashed Berhampur in Orissa in the third week of October, Parliament was in session. Members demanded a discussion on the inadequacy of relief. They were assured that the business committees of the two Houses would allot time. But the introduction of the Insurance Bill was preferred to a debate on the devastation in Berhampur.

Had there been even a limited discussion, the government, both at the Centre and in the state, might not have been caught napping. Both would have been a little more vigilant and a little more organised. When the second and bigger cyclone hit the coastal area of the state a few days later, there was no plan, no preparation. The administration threw up its hands. It looked as if the battle had been lost even before began.

The authorities were criminally slack and sluggish. They had no clue about what to do. And it is no secret that many officials, including the collectors on leave, stayed away even after learning about the cyclone. Neither duty nor conscience tugged them to return to serve the people.

The military swung into action at the Centre's order. Even then precious time was wasted. The relief in certain parts did not begin till a week or 10 days later. When New Delhi had hoisted the danger signal of the cyclone two days earlier it is not clear why the follow-up steps for disaster management were initiated straightaway. Why were not polythene sheets, equipment for sinking wells in dry areas, sachets of drinking water, tents, apart from food and medicine, not collected beforehand?

The state government did not wake up for 10 days. It had no defence. The state did practically nothing. Even when it came to know that lakhs of people were marooned and had no food, no drinking water, it expressed helplessness. If this is not the failure of the state machinery, what else is? Politics came in the way; otherwise, it was a fit case for the President to take over the administration.

In fact, the state has been getting warning and ignoring them at the people's peril. Kendrapada was hit by a fierce cyclone as far back as 1971. Some 10,000 people lost their lives at that time. In the last 28 years, the state has learnt little from what happened. The two chief ministers during the period, Biju Patnaik and J B Patnaik, emptied the state's treasury but spent nothing on building an organisation which could take care of the people hit by cyclones, floods or such other tragedies. Even the victims of 1971 cyclone had to fend for themselves.

True, natural calamities are hard to avert. But in Orissa the ordeal is also man-made. There has been a systematic destruction of mangrove and other tropical trees having branches that send down roots. This growth protected the coastal areas. Greedy contractors, politicians and the bureaucrats have deforested the coastal areas, leaving no impediment between the sea and habitations.

The Paradip port was developed in the 70s to provide fillip to the hinterland. It has failed in its purpose. There is only one helipad at the port. The main problem is that the area is criss-crossed by the Baitarani, Brahmani and the Mahanadi rivers, their branches and a hundred rivulets. The delta areas are as it was years ago, raw and unharnessed.

Thousands of people have died this time. In Paradip alone, the casualty figure is around 10,000. Hundreds of thousands are still going from pillar to post, seeking shelter and work. Innumerable people are bivouacking along highways and roads. The rice bowl of the state, a 300-kilometre-long coastal belt, has been destroyed. As many as 1.5 crore [15 million] people have been affected. They have to be helped to restart their life. This will require some Rs 50,000 crore [500 billion], which is beyond the capacity of even the most advanced nations.

Still New Delhi has refused to declare the cyclone havoc a national calamity. What more should have happened to qualify the state for that status? The advantage of a national calamity is that international assistance comes more freely and substantially. And the state gets from the Centre huge funds in its hands. New Delhi's fear is that once the state government has money, it will divert it to the payment of salaries of teachers and others, who have remained unpaid for months. But there can be some method to ensure that the money allocated is spent on rehabilitation alone. The nation calamity has to be declared. The mere phrase would make a psychological difference.

The real lesson to be drawn is that the states have neither resources nor experts to deal with natural disasters. The Centre must set up a separate organisation, preferably under the prime minister so that response is quicker and co-ordination better. Defence Minister George Fernandes is right in suggesting a central agency.

The quantity of assistance is also nowhere near the scale of what was during the Kargil operation. Diwali was still a glittering, wasteful festival. And one missed the institution of volunteers. Not long ago, many persons on their own, slinging a bag on their shoulders, would go to places of natural disasters and spend weeks to render succour to the victims.

The international community has been tardy to offer assistance. And I have missed if the Pope said anything on the Orissa cyclone. He should have emphasised more on the woes of the sufferers, a cleansing and uniting quality, than on saying: "May the Third Christian Millennium witness a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital continent."

The Orissa tragedy should have shaken us. It has not. The tragedy should have awakened us to the privations of most people all over India -- how they live on the periphery of poverty and how the 52-year-old independence has made little difference to their condition. They still have no regular income, no firm shelter and nothing to fall back upon. Their children have no school to go to and the old wait for death helplessly. They shudder to fall ill because they have no means to afford medicine. Nor can they remain idle for a single day. Even a small flood, much less the cyclone, destroys their meagre existence. And then they get so engrossed in finding food, shelter or work for themselves that they have no time to look for their lost relations, their neighbours or village men.

The hard decision that the Vajpayee-led government should make is to curb the greed of elite and how to curtail consumerism. Our development should have provided people with food, clothing, shelter, clean water and sanitation. But the benefits of development have gone to the top. The ruling class has 'seceded' from the common man. Modern gadgets and goodies are an integral part of the globalisation which shape the government's policies. Undoing all may not be possible. We have burnt many bridges. Still some priorities can be re-fixed so that the programmes concerning people and their welfare are taken up first.

The basic problem remains the same. The cake is small and the number of people wanting a slice is increasing. Had the size of the cake grown larger there would have been something for everybody to take home. The demand is either by the top or by those who operate in the name of caste and crime. In a way, the Orissa tragedy has a lesson for all communities. They must come together as much to barricade their villages as to develop their resources. Those who are trying to raise the standard in the name of caste or religion would serve their case better if they were to act in the name of welfare.

Kuldip Nayar