Belated Benevolence
It
has been seen that some ruling party workers of the state govt are trying
desperately to gather some cheap popularity by publicizing their effort to
minimize the causalities in the present pre forecasted cyclone. It’s a
ridiculous effort by the workers to compare Very Severe Cyclone Phailine with
Super Cyclone of 1999, rather concentrating on how to rehabilitate and
compensate the cyclone victims whose precious homes and livelihood has been
devastated and shattered in the fury of this disaster. It is to be felt that the a hell and heaven
difference between social life of 1999 and 2013 ….we can say we are in the
modern world where everything is on our doorstep .the information and
broadcasting technology has reduced the distance along the geography and we are reaping the benefits of neo
economic liberalization. We developed better infrastructure in terms of
military, satellite technology, weather forecasting, roads, buildings, IT and ITES .In the year 1999 barely some
metros have GSM and CDMA network and some high profile industrialists of the
country were availing the benefit of mobile technology. But now we are
witnessing a quite different scenario every village is connected with internet
and mobile technology and even poor people are availing its benefits. Many
electronic and social media came in to position for clear, accurate and
effective dissemination of information and news and information across the country.
Many flagship programs have been promulgated by Central Govt to buildup better
infrastructure across the country.
In
the verge of oct 1999 a monstrous super cyclone hit the coastal belt with its
furious outfit which was totally unexpected for the nation and it ruined
everything within a nick of time and life comes to a standstill after the
cyclone aftermath. The result was so scary that some 15000 ppl were killed and corers
have been displaced and the devastation was in an unprecedented scale. All
these happed only because of lake of information, lack state of the art technology
and awareness among the people, weak weather forecasting system, improper
dissemination of information, lack of preparedness, weak economy, and a frail
ruling govt.
But
in the present time we got ample time to evacuate and displace the cyclone prone
people to much safer places by creating awareness through various channels. The
role of IMD, IBD,NDRF, Odisha Govt, ODRAF and other social service Orgs effort
to be praised to carry out the forecast in a proper way to minimize the loss of
life .But still we have failed to protect the home and property of the people
which also we can minimize if we would have developed better infrastructure for
the ppl who are availing low infrastructure in terms of dwelling and road
connectivity .we could build Pucca houses
for those ppl who are living in thatched houses and displace them from low
lying areas to much safer places .
It ll be unfair if we ll only blame the then
ruling party by turning a blind eye
towards the loop holes and negligence of the present ruling party rather taking
proactive majors for a long-term
settlement from frequent natural menace affecting the coastal belt while we
have almost everything on our disposal now. Because it won’t be possible every
time to displace and evacuate people in such a huge scale when we have little
time to react and natural calamities enter uninvited without a knock. If the
govt would have implemented various national flagship program’s like PMGSY(for Pukka Sadak), Indira awas
Yojana(for Pucca houses), RGGVY(for rural electrification), MGNREGA(for poverty
elevation and & building rural infra) , TSP(for sanitation), NRDWP,NRHM,
VAAY,MPLADP etc properly , we would have succeeded to minimize the loss of property too though home is something so
precious that an individual owns in his lifetime .Any way there is no doubt this
is another lesson for us to be prepared next time and we couldn’t ignore thanking our CM for his
belated benevolence towards the people of Odisha.
