Bhubaneswar, Nov. 24 :     A row has erupted between the state government and Unicef over distribution of polythene sheets. Thousands of homeless cyclone victims continue to clamour for roofs to shield themselves from the cold winter wind. Asked why the government failed to provide polythene sheets to most of the 2.5 million people affected by the supercyclone, special relief commissioner D.N.Padhi told newspersons here yesterday that the government had relied on Unicef to supply 10 million metres of sheets, but the world body had failed to keep its promise. Three days after the October 29 cyclone, Padhi said Unicef had written to the government, offering to provide 10 million metres of polythene sheets. ?But I am sorry to say that we have so far received only 2,00,000 pieces from the organisation,? he said at a daily briefing. Saying he had no intention of joining issue with Unicef, the relief commissioner indicated that precious time was lost as the government waited for Unicef to deliver the polythene sheets. ?We could not place orders for the sheets from other sources and had to wait after Unicef came up with the offer. Otherwise, we would have been hauled up by auditing officials later,? Padhi said. Unicef officials today hotly denied having made any such offer. On the contrary, they said the government had requested the organisation to provide 10 million metres of polythene sheets. Additional relief commissioner Mayadhara Panigrahi, in a letter to Unicef state representative M.Muralidharan on November 1, asked for several emergency relief materials including ?10 million rolls? of polythene. ?We never said we will provide 10 million metres of polythene, but promised to supply as much as possible,? an Unicef official engaged in relief operation said. Consequently, the Unicef Bhubaneswar field office sent messages to its all offices in the country to procure 2,50,00 sheets, but they failed. ?The sheets are not available in the country and we have so far managed to procure only 1,13,300 sheets. These have already been handed over to the state government,? the official said. The organisation has now asked its offices abroad as well as its international donors to supply the polythene. Unicef officials called the government accusations unfortunate. ?We have never faced any allegations before and that too, from the state government. We have always had a good working relationship with the government in the past,? a Unicef project officer said. ?The relief commissioner should not have gone public with the allegations.? Unicef has so far provided $8 million in aid for cyclone victims. The organisation also pledged $15 million to carry out restoration and rehabilitation of affected families in coming 15 years. ?We are committed to rebuilding Orissa and lending a helping hand to the state government,? an official said. Padhi said the government needed at least 2,58,000 rolls of polythene to provide 2.5 million affected people left homeless in the cyclone, but so far got only 50,000 rolls. ?We have been searching for polythene all over the country.? Hamstrung by rules and regulations, Padhi said the government departments could not procure the sheets from the market straight away. ?We have to go through all kinds of formalities and specifications and cannot always offer the market rate even in this type of situation to avoid audit and vigilance inquiries,? he said. ?In a war, all rules and regulations are set aside. But here, we are supposed to follow all procedures even though we are working on a war footing.?