Confusion marks Govt response

8220;In fact, a committee has been set up under the chairmanship of J C Pant, former agriculture secretary, to work on improving the natural disaster management planning,8221; said Bhaskar Baruah, Secretary, Agriculture. There is a well-established procedure to deal with natural disasters, he added.

The super cyclone had given enough indication of its savage fury long before it struck. For four days, the cyclonic circulation lay in the Bay of Bengal acquiring monstrous proportions. The authorities sat and watched the catastrophe-in-making.

The Natural Disaster ManagementDivision did nothing more than coordinate the evacuation of people from coastal areas. The respective state governments followed the same drill mechanically. No mechanism for relief was put in place which has now led to a mad scramble with little results. All that the Chief Minister of Orissa has managed to do since then is to repeatedly plead with the PM on his satphone for aid from his Bhubaneswar residence.

Consider the role of the agencies involved. The India Meteorological Department IMD, which has a separate division for cyclone warning, had warned Orissa and West Bengal about the super cyclone four days in advance.

The IMD officials said it all the direction the super cyclone was coming from, the intensity and its path of approach towards Paradip and the wind speeds. The department had sounded warnings on AIRand DD. But how many people can understand the weather department jargon? No one drew a scenario even remotely resembling what has happened now.

8220;The IMD bulletins are so technicallyoverdosed that it is difficult even for educated people.,8221; says Subhash Gupta, joint secretary of the Indian Red Cross Society, which has started relief operations in the affected districts of the state. 8220;Simple things are described in such difficult official language that people do not understand. I doubt if people or for that matter government officials in the state, could make anything out,8221; he adds.