File picture of chief minister Naveen Patnaik at a relief distribution centre. (AFP)

Cuttack, Oct. 17: The district administration has sought a detailed report from the civic body regarding utilisation of relief materials distributed among Phailin victims.

The move comes in the wake of allegation that the relief materials supplied by the district administration to the Cuttack Municipal Corporation did not reach the beneficiaries, while bulk of the stock was allegedly embezzled by some councillors.

Collector Girish S.N. said the district administration had provided rice, candles and lanterns to the corporation officials to distribute these among the storm victims.

Official sources said the district administration had supplied 191.80 quintals of rice, 100 lanterns and over 1,000 candle packets.

The corporation, on the other hand, had arranged four quintals of potatoes, 1,800 litres of edible oil, 48,632 biscuit packets and 79 packets of dal (50kg pack).

The materials were meant for nearly 24,830 people, who were evacuated and shifted to 73 identified shelters, prior to the cyclone that hit the state on October 12.

The corporation community organisers had prepared the list of those to be evacuated from the low-lying areas keeping in view the cyclone threat on October 11. However, though the civic body had decided to serve cooked food by setting up four free kitchens, it did not materialise.

Later, the civic body officials issued rice, dal and other food items to various councillors as they had wanted to distribute the materials on their own at their respective wards.

The councillors have refused to comment on the issue, while Opposition parties, including the Congress and the BJP, demanding a detail probe into the incident.

“Due to lack of adequate food stock and bad weather, it was not possible to operate free kitchens to serve cooked food. Later, the relief materials were handed over to the councillors as they had claimed that the number of the storm victims was more than list prepared,” said deputy commissioner-cum-relief officer of the corporation J.N. Kujur.

Kujur said the corporation was planning to seek reports from the councillors about the food stock and other relief materials along with the beneficiaries’ signatures.