Visitors torment victims

While Chief Minister J B Patnaik, Revenue Minister Jagannath Patnaik, Leader of Opposition Ramkrushna Patnaik and leaders of other political parties visited the village on Wednesday, they were later followed by a Central Team headed by Union Minister of State for Agriculture Som Pal. The Union Minister of State for Coal,Dilip Ray, Deputy Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal, a ten-member all party delegation headed by Union Minister for Steel and Mines Naveen Patnaik and the senior CPI MPs, Indrajit Gupta and Geeta Mukherjee visited the affected villages separately yesterday.

While the people, whose houses had been turned to rubble, were busy with makeshift arrangements to spend the nights under polythene sheets, curious men, women and children trampled around them to see how the high-velocity storm had destroyed the village.

Women, who had lost their husbands or children, broke into wails every now and then, as the menfolk were trying to organise food and shelter.

The free kitchens opened in the area were providing cooked food to the people but drinking water posed a problem.

All the four tubewells had gone dry after the tornado with officials not able to explain why or how it happened.

The ponds and tanks, the water from which had been sucked out by the tornado along with fish, had begun to stink with the waterunfit for human consumption.

Though the authorities had rushed a water tanker to the village for the inhabitants, its contents were not enough for the visitors alone.

However, the district administration had started installation of four temporary tubewells in Gobarghata, the worst-affected village.

But it was observed that most of the villagers were not keen to take food at the free kitchens, a point driven home by local legislators in the Orissa Assembly yesterday.

According to the district collector, Basanta Charan Swain, preliminary reports suggested that about 5,000 people had been affected by the tornado while about 1,500 houses had been either demolished completely or damaged partially in the phenomenon.

Though Revenue Minister Jagannath Patnaik had assured that the Ramkrishna Mission would start relief and rehabilitation work in the area soon, it was yet to do so.

Villagers, however, alleged that some Non-Government Organisations from across the border in West Bengal, who had shown interestto help, had returned after failing to coordinate with the local administration.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Health Minister Partha De today assured supply of adequate medicines to the tornado-ravaged villages in Midnapore district and said that a team of doctors were camping in the areas.

Replying to a question in the Assembly De said that measures were also being taken to purify the pond water which was contaminated after Tuesday8217;s calamity.

Bleaching powder and lime had already been supplied for the purpose. If necessary more bleaching powder and lime would be supplied, he said.

Halogen tablets were also given immediately after the disaster. Public health engineering department would dig tubewells for the supply of drinking water, he said.

Stating that his department was in constant touch with the three affected blocks in the district, he said that another officer from his department was leaving for the area during the day.