In many places of the twin districts, relief materials are yet to reach the affected villagers who have been stranded there for over four days. For instance, in Bhaganpur I and Patashpur II, hungry villagers looted truckloads of relief materials consisting of food packets and water pouches. Similar incidents were also reported from Daton and Sabong in West Midnapore. Altogether 32 blocks in the two districts are affected, including 2 municipalities and 7,810 villages.

The state Civil Defence Minister, Srikumar Mukherjee admitted to the “problems in relief distribution” and said: “We are yet to reach some affected areas and the relief provided is also not adequate. But we are trying our best. At some places, hungry villagers have looted relief materials. We are sending more relief materials there. We have already distributed 1,800 tonnes of rice in West

Midnapore and 1,700 tonnes in East Midnapore.”

One of the reasons cited for the mismanagement is the absence of panchayat bodies in the region. Since the panchayat boards are yet to be formed in the districts, local bodies are defunct and relief work through them has become impossible.

The district administration of the two districts, meanwhile, held meetings with local leaders of the political parties to solve the impasse. “We want the participation of the local panchayats in relief distribution. But since the boards are yet to be formed, the process is getting delayed,” said West Midnapore district magistrate Anup Agarwal.

The district administration is banking on Air Force and Army for the relief and rescue operations. Though four columns of Army personnel, numbering around 270, have been pressed into the operation, airdropping of relief materials were discontinued on Monday, following the orders from the district administration. “We are guided by the district administration. We discontinued air droppings because today there was no request from the district administration.

Personnel from the 3rd Madras Regiment, 1096 Light Regiment and 6th Engineers Regiment have been pressed into action. We have been reading news reports that relief has not reached some areas, but we are conducting our operations in areas where the district administration directed us to do so,” said Group Captain R K Das, spokesperson for the Eastern Command.