People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
23
June 7, 2009
|
Vol. XXXIII
No.
23 June 7, 2009 |
B Prasant
THE widespread impact of the
cyclonic storm Aila and rising tides that hit
First, a few statistical
figures. A total of 130
people have perished in the fury of nature until date. Nearly 70 lakh
people,
mostly in the coastal or littoral areas, have been adversely affected
by the
cyclone. The people have been suddenly deprived of � in the space of a
few hours
� of shelter, food, drinking water, communications, and medical
assistance. All
these are well on their way to being restored. The remarkable feature
in this
exercise has been the way the mass of the people have been pro-active
in coming
to the help of the neighbourhood they dwell, despite being afflicted
themselves.
The Gram Panchayats and the
CPI(M) local committees �
as well as branches of the Party � with participation of the Left mass
frontal
organisations, struggled bravely together, virtually waged a war of
relief
during the first 24 hours of the calamity, offering water, food,
shelter, and the
ubiquitous flashlight or �torches� to the cowering people who stood
under the
open yawn of the sky from which rain poured, stopped, and poured again.
They
stood bereft of every material possession and were surrounded by that
horrible,
mind-boggling stench of death � of men, women, children, and of dearly
held
household animals, small and large, single or in a herd.
Added to this was the
overpowering stench of rotting
trees and vegetations and crops of every form. Life had virtually to be
started
anew for so many of the families of the littoral areas that we lost
count long,
long back, and these were the families we had a chance to visit over
what were
three days of disquiet of the horrific.
Let us go back to the
statistics. Several thousand
crores of rupees worth property and cattle have been lost forever. Road
networks
have been damaged as in an earthquake. Innumerable bridges, viaducts,
overpasses, and countrymade bamboo cross-overs have been obliterated. Built up areas resembled unending stretches
of rice paddies with not a single vertical structure standing. The
green cover
has been blown with the uprooting of limitless number of trees, thick
in trunk,
large in shade, that were weathering veterans of storms over the past
hundred
years.
DISTRIBUTION
OF RELEIF
The Left Front government has
distributed just under
30 lakh litres of potable water in plastic pouches and bags. Jerrycans of water are carried to the more
accessible areas. Around 3400 MT of dry food, as well as an equal
amount of
rice has been dropped from the air using the means available to the
state
government. A total of 700 large relief
centres and many more thousand smaller relief �camps� are up and
running where
cooked food is supplied to the hungry and the underfed. Temporary
godowns have
been set up in strategic places to load up on relief materials for
gradual
feeding into the distribution system.
Millions of halazone tablets
have been distributed to
keep the water safe for drinking. It is a matter of pride for
Over every form of
infrastructure, be it power or
health facilities, overpasses or roads or water supply, hangs the
threat of
total collapse. The engineers, the doctors, the technicians, and the
construction workers are at it day and night without a pause that would
refresh
them �� in order to bring normalcy and the comfort that comes with it,
to the
affected people. Gigantic and massive
are the words that spring to mind, as we are witness to the relief
efforts in
action.
It is important to note that the
Left Front government
ministers led by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee have made
unobtrusive
presences felt to lead the relief work and bring comfort and assurance
of the
elderly and the experienced to the people in dire distress. Finance minister Asim Dasgupta like in the
past was a tireless monitor at first hand of the relief efforts
throughout
�Do not teach me geography,�
Buddhadeb was heard to
snap at a state government official, �just tell me how many heads of
cattle
have been killed and how many carcases could be interned.�
He was at the remote and rendered almost
impassable Balidwip
COLLECTION
OF FUNDS
Left Front workers collected
funds throughout the
state from May 28 and the effort continues as we file this report.
Biman Basu
himself led the first wave of Left Front volunteers out in the streets
of
Kolkata to collect funds and material help. The Left Front government
has
called upon the Congress-led UPA government up in
Meanwhile the Trinamuli chief
Mamata Banarjee has
lambasted every effort made at relief by the Left Front and the Left
Front
government as �bogus,� without citing concrete proof. Dangerously, she
has
called upon the UPA government to send the relief funds straight to the
district magistrates bypassing the state government. The Panchayats run
by the
Trinamul Congress and the Congress have
stayed away from the entire relief-and-rehabilitation network, and
south 24
Parganas and Midnapore east are glaring example of this betrayal of the
people�s trust.
CPI(M)
