Lessons unlearnt

Orissa has long been India's natural disaster crucible, so it is informative to examine how it managed — or mismanaged — relief and rehabilitation operations after a cyclone five years ago

Bibhuti Mishra Bhubaneshwar

In little more than a year after its coastal districts were ripped apart by a cyclone on October 29, 1999, Orissa saw five people serially occupying the crucial post of special relief commissioner (SRC). The Orissa State Disaster Management Authority, set up a few months after the 1999 cyclone to oversee reconstruction, had a high turnover of management heads. Not only does this underline the state government's inept handling of disaster relief work but also the inefficiency and venality of government officials charged with relief and rehabilitation responsibilities.

''Help the victims of the super-cyclone'' screamed a banner at the Bhubaneshwar railway station in the wake of the 1999 calamity: but the relief operations reception counter remained unattended. Large quantities of relief materials were piled on the platforms with no takers. Cartons, boxes and polythene bags, inscribed with the legend, "For the super cyclone victims of Orissa'', lay around containing everything from rice, dal (pulses), gur (molasses) and wheat to dress materials, medicines, polythene covers and baby food. The consignees were mostly government agencies, but included individuals and voluntary organisations. Even the medicines sent by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund lay around unprotected.

At least 500,000 blankets nestled undistributed in a government warehouse in Bhubaneshwar even three years after the tragedy. It was only after media reports that authorities dispatched the blankets to the affected districts. (As always, government help did not reach the victims when they needed it the most. A majority got the blankets at the height of Orissa's scorching summer. When an earthquake struck Gujarat in January 2002, Orissa was quick to send 2,500 blankets to Bhuj and 800-odd tents to Ahmedabad. The irony was that these were meant for Orissa's own cyclone victims but had been caught in the web of bureaucratic ennui.)

There was an absolute lack of coordination at the receiving end, prompting an activist of the Bharat Seva Ashram Sangh, who had come with the relief materials, to remark, ''Our chief has even threatened to close down relief operations in the state.'' Voluntary organisations that preferred to carry out relief operations on their own faced problems from uncooperative officers and local politicians who tried to dictate terms.

Relief materials also piled up at block and district headquarters, from where they had to be dispatched to villages through local ward members and sarpanchs. At many places, the villagers alleged that they were not getting the relief, stymied because the sarpanchs and the ward members employ political considerations to decide on the distribution of relief in the villages. At Ersama, the worst affected block in Orissa, where more than 6,000 people were killed, huge stocks of dress materials were found piled up at the block headquarters. All the while, little children were seen moving around half-naked in the chilly weather. The dress materials later allegedly made their way to the residences of the district officers, as did foreign blankets.

A CARE official who was engaged in the relief operations said, "It was amazing how venal these government officials turned out to be. They were out to grab everything from foreign blankets to good rice and pulses that came from outside. It was horrifying to see these people cashing in on human misery."

Contrary to the government's claim that a lot was achieved with regard to rehabilitation and reconstruction in the cyclone-hit region, three years after the calamity thousands of people continued to live under polythene sheets and in jhuggis. As against 750,000 houses that were totally destroyed or washed away, only about 40,000 low-cost dwellings were built within three years. The money that came for the construction of houses lined the pockets of bureaucrats, contractors and local politicians.

Relief operations were marked by the multi-crore rupee polythene scam that involved the then SRC. But when the government did not take serious notice, it was left to the court to act on petitions. Alleging large-scale irregularities in the purchase of polythene rolls by the state government from different agencies, the petitioners had challenged the "arbitrary and whimsical" action of the state's SRC. The government ordered a judicial probe but the name of the judge was yet to be announced when the high court intervened in 2000.

The Orissa High Court ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A division bench comprising Justice P C Naik and Justice B P Das, giving their verdict on a batch of writ petitions filed by various private polythene suppliers, ruled that the matter required a thorough investigation as millions of rupees of public money were involved. The court directed the CBI director to investigate the procurement of polythene by the state government through different sources, including its principal resident commissioner in Delhi and the Orissa Small Industries Corporation. It also directed that the investigation be entrusted to an officer not below the rank of deputy inspector general.

The polythene scam seems to have taught no lessons. In 2003, the Orissa state administration was still in a state of inactivity over the issue of providing polythene to flood victims. A judicial inquiry had been ordered. Besides, a public interest litigation (PIL) was still underway in the Orissa High Court. But all that came about was the SRC's relocation on deputation to the Centre.

Regarding the transfer of the then district collectors of Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak and the chief executive officer of the Cuttack municipal committee for failing to discharge their professional duties, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had said that if the allegations were correct, then it amounted to ''negligence to prevent human rights violations in terms of Section 12(A) of the Protection Act, 1993'' and then recommended that the Orissa government initiate appropriate action against them. It was never done.

Large-scale corruption and bribery were reported in compensations to cyclone victims and house-rebuilding assistance. But not a single official was found culpable. Naeem from Nimapara, one of the beneficiaries of the government's scheme for assistance to cyclone victims, says, "My father gave 25 per cent in advance at the tehsil office and that is how we got the money. But there are many victims who never got a paisa."

The NHRC had directed the Orissa government to take immediate steps for the proper distribution of relief among the people affected by the cyclone. It had also asked the state government to initiate disciplinary action against officials who failed to discharge their professional duties in the aftermath of natural calamity.

A division bench of the Orissa High Court had issued notices to the Central and state governments on a PIL that sought an inquiry into the alleged corruption and irregularities in the distribution of relief materials. The petitioners demanded a status report on relief and rehabilitation measures taken in the affected areas. The state government allowed the petition to gather dust and die.

With regard to restoration of livelihood, there was little achievement. In Ersama, more than 50,000 cattle perished. Till a year after the disaster, no more than a few hundred cattle had been replaced; the farmers in the region did not even have bullocks to till their land, although a sizable portion of about £5 million worth of foreign assistance through the Red Cross and international bodies had come in for agricultural rehabilitation.

P K Choudhury, who heads a non-governmental organisation (NGO), says, "Lots of money came for agricultural infrastructure rebuilding and disaster preparedness through the NGO network. But the voluntary sector also has its sharks. Why blame officers and businessmen alone?"

Delay in the completion of various reconstruction projects under World Bank assistance has also irked the Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA). Sources say the state health department had received Rs 80 lakh as financial assistance from the World Bank through the OSDMA for the reconstruction of 15 hospital buildings in Biridi, Piteipur, Salijanga, Malhunka and other places. Five years later, only one building has been reconstructed.

The OSDMA had also provided financial assistance to different government agencies for the construction of 230 multipurpose cyclone shelters, of which only 148 have been constructed. More than 50 villages located close to the coast have no cyclone shelter.

If a cyclone were to strike Orissa today, thousands would still die. It's no one's dispute that had the recent tsunami hit this disaster-prone state, then past experience with disasters or no, it might have fared no better than Tamil Nadu did.