A flood-hit family perched on top of a thatched house at Tikhiri village in Kendrapara (file picture)

Kendrapara, Sept. 22: The government promises of providing relief to people in the face of natural calamities proved fake in the current flood situation as all state-controlled agencies were caught on the wrong foot for one reason or the other in Kendrapara district.

With trails of flood-induced devastation slowly emerging, skeletons are tumbling out of administrative cupboard relating to disaster mitigation and control blueprint.The early warning system did function creditably, but the rest collapsed.

Considering the case of ware-houses in every gram panchayat, the proposal was viable and practicable, as it aimed to serve the purpose of storage of food grains apart from providing shelter to people during natural calamities. However, as the ground realities emerged, the warehouses served the purpose in none of the flood-hit gram panchayats. Of the 200 godowns, almost all of them faced watery ingress with some of them still lying submerged.

“The gram panchayats had failed to store a grain of food materials at Ameipala, Khurusia gram panchayats in Mahakalpada block, which are badly affected in flood,” said Gyanedra Samantaray, chairman of the Mahakalpada Panchayat Samity.

“The gram panchayat buildings and godowns were the first to be hit by the deluge as these were located at comparatively low-lying areas,” said Samantaray.

“The flood-control mechanism was completely messed up. Though the sarpanchs were directed to store dry food, water and fuel in advance, nothing of that sort was done. Officials claimed from rooftop that adequate food and boats were in store. However, the claims were proved hollow as people had lived in hunger for 48 hours. Relief reached two days after the flood,” said Balaram Parida, former chairman of the Samity.

Given the scenario, the generous supply of food grains and relief to the affected panchayats faced immediate problem of storage following the waterlogged godowns. Therefore, the materials had to be stored in private buildings, heightening prospect of pilferage.

The warehouses and panchayat buildings had become the first casualty of the flood. At least 200 gram panchayats were covered under the project and godowns were built in gram panchayats under the Central Sampurna Gramin Rojgar Yojana.

According to the approved plan, the panchayat godowns were to be built at higher altitude locations, so that it might remain safe and people from the low-lying areas could take shelter. At gram panchayats such as Marshaghai, Bedari, Tikhiri, Ameipala, Mangarajpur, Beruhan and Antei floodwaters swamped the panchayat buildings and the warehouses.

The fact that politicians dictated terms in selecting the site for such godowns has proved to be the bane for distressed people.