A man pushes his child through floodwaters in a vessel after rising waters of the Mahanadi flooded their home on the outskirts of Cuttack. (AP)

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 13: As hunger gnaws at them, over two lakh people marooned in the flood zone are finding the airdropped relief to be too little too late.

In the past three days, only 750 bags of cooked food have been dropped in these villages, each bag containing 4kg of khichdi (rice cooked with dal and vegetables). “As many as 250 bags were dropped today,” said an official in charge of the relief operations.

Dry food, too, is being airdropped, with 12,250 bags dropped so far, each bag containing 3kg chuda (flattened rice), 500gm jaggery, two candles and a matchbox. Along with these, two biscuit packets, water pouches, halogens tablets and ORS packets are also being put in the bags.

The state-run Orissa Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS) is supervising the preparation of both cooked and non-cooked food of which 20,000 food packets have been made in the past three days. While 13,000 are already gone, the remaining 7,000 are expected to be airdropped tomorrow.

The huge kitchen set up at Unit VIII Kalyan Mandap is whirring with activity, the job of cooking having been farmed out to a private caterer. “We have been doing the job since 1999. We focus on providing quality food, as the people living in the flood-hit areas are in distress. What is being put in the packets as cooked food is khichdi with pickles. We put a lot of vegetables in the khichdi,” said 58-year-old caterer, Prahalad Das who has engaged 150 workers for the job.

One look at the packets showed the claim to be exaggerated. The khichdi had only a few vegetables in it. “With vegetable prices skyrocketing, this is the best we can do,” he said a bit apologetically. Das plans to charge the government Rs50 for each cooked food packet containing 250gm of khichdi.

The authorities switched over to khichdi following complaints about the quality of “poori” and “aludam” airdropped in the flood zone on Monday. The foodstuff not only reached too late, it was stale, triggering health concerns.

Significantly, the floods have not only led to an increase in the price of flattened rice and jaggery but these items have practically disappeared from the market. Pintu, a wholesaler in Unit I market, said he was struggling to get fresh stocks. “It has become very difficult because the roads are bad and the demand has gone up suddenly,” he said.

While flattened nice, which earlier cost Rs 18, is now selling for Rs 24 per kg, the price of jaggery has gone up to Rs 30 from Rs 26 per kg. The state is in touch with the Bengal government to procure flattened rice for the flood-hit.