A house flattened by the storm at Daribas. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, April 20: More than 250 families in Daribas and Jaridharala villages in Dinhata have been living under the open sky because no relief has reached them since their huts were flattened by a storm accompanied by rain on Thursday night.

The two villages, under Geetaldaha gram panchayat in Dinhata, are isolated from the mainland by the Dharala. Electricity connection has not reached the area, which is adjacent to Bangladesh.

Dinnath Barman, the Congress gram panchayat member of Daribas, said the storm was so fierce that the tin roofs of the houses were blown away. Standing crops of corn, boro rice and jute were completely damaged.

“But even after informing the block development officer (BDO) about the extent of the damage over phone, nothing has been done. Not a single tarpaulin has reached the affected people so far,” Barman alleged.

Amjad Ali, one of the affected farmers, said he had stored over 700kg of dried tobacco leaves in his hut which the storm had destroyed. “My wife, our son and daughter and myself are somehow spending the nights in the open,” he added.

The villagers were angry at the alleged apathy being shown by the district administration towards them. “They (officials) are too busy with the panchayat elections. We are the poorest of the poor, so we are not important to them,” Ali said.

Kamal Barman, whose roof was flung 1km away by the winds on Thursday, said the tins were so badly twisted that these could not be reused. “What will I do if no one comes up to help after the devastation.”

A storm had made many of the villagers almost homeless in the third week of March. “But we cannot recollect of seeing a more violent storm than that of the last week,” said Hafeez Miyan, another affected person.

The district magistrate of Cooch Behar, Rajesh Kumar Sinha, said he has instructed the BDO to take all measures so that relief could be provided to the affected villagers.