(Top) An aerial view of flood-affected areas in Kendrapada. (Above) A family perched atop their thatched house in Tikhiri village in Kendrapara district. Pictures by AP, PTI

Kendrapara, Sept. 14: People here have started attempting to loot government relief materials as hunger pangs grew sharper five days since the deluge began.

One person has been arrested and police have registered cases against several people for trying to snatch relief material in Marshaghai.

Villagers have intercepted vehicles carrying boats to marooned areas at a number of places in the past two days. The boats were then forcible ferried to the marooned villages, said official sources.

Angry protests and unruly behaviour by people seems to have hit the morale of officials engaged in relief operations. Fearing public wrath, only a few officials are venturing out to the spot to supervise relief operations.

The relief operation has failed to make its way into badly-hit villages such as, Mangarajpur, Antei, Batira, Talasanga, Bhagabanpur, Tikhiri, Nachipada Beruhan, Manikpur, Narasinghapur, Bhusrang, Padmapur, Jamunabad, Jagannathpur, Nuapada and Bichana along the Mahanadi deltaic region.

Floodwater is spilling over on to NH-5 (A) near Nilachal bazaar and Bhootmundei junctions. “The crux of the problem is that relief materials are not being able to reach Haladiagada junction by road from the block headquarters. From this point, the relief goods would have been ferried by boats to the remote areas. The rough river tide coupled with paucity of boats has come in the way of relief reaching the people,” said district emergency officer Rudra Narayan Mohanty.

Voicing their anger at relief not reaching them, people have staged road blockades at a couple of places on the Paradip-Daitary Expressway.

It was alleged that relief materials stored in block offices and various relief distribution points were forcibly taken by BJD workers in Patkura and Mahakalpada.

“The administration has claimed that it is armed with 453 boats, including 189 mechanised ones. But in fact, hardly 100 boats are in operation in the flooded villages.

“Unless more boats are pressed into service in a day or two, people in marooned areas will have to put up with more hardships,” said former chairman of Mahakalpada panchayat samity, Balaram Parida.

Even medical teams have not been able to move into all the cut-off areas. Over 50 doctors of the 43 medical teams are sitting idle without boats at their disposal.

“We need more boats,” said chief district medical officer Biraj Kishore Sahu. Lapses in relief reaching the flood-hit people continue to dominate the scene even as air-dropping is the sole succour for people stranded in the Luna-Chitrotpala deltaic region and various other inaccessible pockets of Mahakalpada, Garadapur and Marshaghai blocks.

“The ruling party is indulging in relief-politics and running a parallel relief exercise. The politicised government machinery is insensitive towards the plight of the marooned people,” said senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra.

Energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and senior BJD leader and former minister Bed Prakash Agrawal, however, denied the charge.