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Orissa toll crosses 1,300 as relief work picks up

Life in the cyclone-ravaged Orissa coast began limping back to normal today as the official toll reached 1,361 while Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited some of the devastated areas.

Bhubaneswar airport has become operational and yesterday the port at Paradip resumed commercial activities while trucks with relief material started moving to the interior areas under the protection of police, paramilitary forces and even youth volunteers, two top central government officials associated with the rescue work said today.

The railway track has now been opened up to Cuttack from the south and Balasore from the north while the Howrah-Kharagpur-Bhadrak-Cuttack rail section has also become operational.

National Highway 5 linking Madras and Calcutta, breached for a length of 90 metres at Soro, was likely to be reopened tonight even as eight state roads were cleared for traffic, said Central Relief Commissioner Bhagat Singh and S Srivastav, special secretary in the Union agriculture ministry.

At a press conference in New Delhi, they unveiled myriad tales of woe from the human tragedy, but hastily added that the authorities had gained access to the interiors. The beleaguered state, which had not experienced a super cyclone in the recent past like neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, has started receiving relief material from different places.

An eight-member inter-ministerial central team, which had left for Orissa to make a spot assessment of the requirements for relief operations, returned to the capital last evening.

Singh and Srivastav said the state government had taken all measures to ensure that the relief materials being sent to the affected areas were not looted anymore. They regretted that there was a dearth of funds though the Centre had already released Rs 5.5 billion while the state had Rs 420 million.

Along with foodstuff, Indian Air Force helicopters dropped 2 million chlorine tablets, 130 tonnes of bleaching powder and 4.5 million malaria tablets while 940 tonnes of food supplies and relief materials were moved by ship to Paradip port.

According to an estimate, 50,000 hand pumps were damaged in the cyclone and at least seven days would be needed for total repairs. With massive restoration work underway, water supply through pipes would be made available in Bhubaneswar in a day or two. Efforts are also being made to restore power supply through repair of distribution lines all over, they said.

Jagatsinghpur district, in which the most number of people have been killed so far, 765 -- followed by 225 in Puri, 124 in Cuttack and 121 in Kendrapara -- saw 600 government buildings and 1,200 school buildings flattened, they said.

The super cyclone affected 10,222,000 people in 12 districts besides damaging crops in 323,000 hectares, destroying over 275,000 houses, and killing 30,000 heads of cattle.

All measures to inoculate people in the cyclone-hit areas to prevent the outbreak of epidemic diseases are being taken, while communication links are being restored in phases.

Six more companies of paramilitary forces, in addition to 14 companies already deployed, are on their way to the affected areas to assist the state administration in relief operations.

Meanwhile, in Bhubaneswar, Prime Minister Vajpayee announced an additional Rs 1 billion from the National Calamity Relief Fund for the operations.

Vajpayee made an aerial survey of the affected areas with senior Cabinet colleagues this evening and later chaired a review meeting on the rescue-and-relief operation. He told reporters that the Centre would provide all help for the relief operation.

Vajpayee said that on hearing the severity of the cyclone, he had released Rs 1 billion from the NCRF without going through the necessary procedure.

He said a hue and cry was raised as to why the Centre had not declared the calamity a national disaster. "This debate is meaningless as from the very first day we have treated it as a national calamity," he pointed out.

He appealed for an end to the controversy, stating that it was the treatment that was more important, not the nomenclature.

Vajpayee said he had planned to make an aerial survey of the cyclone-hit districts and land in Jagatsinghpur to meet some victims, but was prevented from doing so by a technical snag in his aircraft.

Vajpayee said he had already appealed to all to lend a helping hand to the cyclone-hit people and wanted to reiterate his appeal considering the enormity of the calamity.

Asked about the demand for handing over the rescue-and-relief operations to the army, the prime minister said the proposal was considered, but would not help. The army is doing its best and the state government has to gear up and mobilise the administration and the manpower to help it, he said.

Vajpayee also announced that the Housing and Urban Development Corporation had offered to give Rs 1.9 billion as assistance to reconstruct 75,000 houses in the cyclone-affected areas.

He said that apart from releasing funds, the Centre had mobilised various departments and government agencies to organise rescue and relief. The IAF, the navy and the army are working round-the-clock to restore normalcy.

He said the state government had agreed to his proposal to station a central team in Patna in neighbouring Bihar and co-ordinate the rescue-and-relief operations.

Asked about the meagre central assistance, Vajpayee said money had been given just to start the work and more money would be provided as necessary.

The rehabilitation work in the cyclone-hit areas would be a gigantic task, he said and added that he had placed all available men and resources of the Centre at the service of the affected people.

To a question, he said if the state government wanted it, the Centre would readily help restore power supply in the state.

Vajpayee said he had enquired from officials if anybody had died of starvation, but the government had denied it. He also said that if necessary he would visit the area again.

The prime minister was accompanied by Mines and Minerals Minister Naveen Patnaik, Power Minister P R Kumaramangalam, Tribal Affairs Minister Juel Oram, Minister of State for Surface Transport Debendra Kumar Pradhan and Minister of State for Steel Dilip Ray, besides the chairman of HUDCO and other senior officials.

Vajpayee said he had visited Orissa on October 24 in the wake of the cyclone of October 17-18. But the super cyclone that battered the state on October 29 had left behind a trail of unprecedented devastation in large parts of the coastal districts.

UNI

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