A girl sits under the damaged roof of her house at Remuna in Balasore. Telegraph picture

Balasore, Oct. 22: The plight of flood victims in this district didn’t end with water receding from their areas. Still living under the open sky, a fresh spell of rain has compounded their woes.

Most parts of the district are experiencing rain since Sunday because of the low-pressure belt formed over the Bay of Bengal near the Tamil Nadu coast.

“We have no roof over us. Now the rain has compounded our woes,” said Banguru Mahalik, 50, of Badapal of Remuna block.

“Ten days have elapsed since the cyclone struck, but we are yet to get a polythene sheet. The cattle belonging to us are also equally suffering with us,” he said.

Mahalik’s plight is shared by thousand others in the district. Nearly 11 people in all the blocks of the district, except Khaira, have come under the grip of the flood.

However, relief is too meagre and slow for such a large number of people. The district emergency office has so far managed to distribute only 17,000 pieces of polythene sheets.

Manas Padhi, tehsildar of Remuna, one of the worst hit places, said: “We have distributed about 1,200 polythene sheets till date. We are trying to identify those victims who urgently require relief materials.”

About 154 villages under 17 gram panchayats of Remuna block have been severely affected by the recent flood.

“One can understand the misery of the people who are yet to get polythene sheets. Some of the victims had to virtually beg with local traders to get polythene sheets. For a pauper, purchasing a sheet of polythene is a dream,” said a flood victim at Khirikona.

Sadar tehsildar Pinaki Patnaik said: “We could distribute about 100 pieces of polythene sheets in the affected area. We are trying reach out to those who have been left out.”

“It has become a very difficult task to meet everyone’s demand at one go. People of certain villages didn’t allow the officials to distribute polythene sheets as they demanded relief materials for every victim,” he said.

District emergency officer Padmanabh Dora said: “Till date we have distributed about 17,000 polythene sheets in the district. We are trying to provide polythene sheets to more people.”

“House building assistance would be provided to those whose house has been damaged. But to complete the task, enumeration of damaged houses needs to be carried out. And that requires time.”

Another district official requesting anonymity said: “Most of the tehsils and blocks are functioning with less than 30 per cent manpower. We have not yet been able to cope with the emergency workload. More manpower from other districts should immediately be brought in to handle the crisis.”