In Orissa, relief work takes a vacation

In Orissa, relief work takes a vacation
MEENAL BAGHEL

JAGTSINGHPUR, FEB 21: The speck on the map of coastal Orissa dissolves into a sylvan villageas we reach Mallipura. Patches of brilliant neon-green paddy, low clouds, nearby, an oval lake bordered with bottle green algae. Lithe, bare-bodied charcoal brown men out of a Nandlal Bose painting stand around, aimlessly, as if installed to complement the landscape.

Then, there are also the trees, their spines broken, houses, with roofs caved in, roads, ruined beyond repair, and the silence of complete inactivity. In the distance, the whisper of the wind mingles with thesound of children chanting: Vote for BJD (the Biju Janata Dal), vote for BJD. Democracy has reached where administration couldn't even three-and-a-half months after the devastating cyclone.

Further down, at Ersama, at Sonadia, at Dhobbai, it's a similar story. Half-alive villages, ruins intact, watched bemused on Sunday as jeeploads of men, men on sturdy motorbikes, on cycles, sailed past, throwing pamphlets, exhorting them to vote fortheir candidates. On February 22, seventy-seven Assembly segments across the coast of Orissa go to polls. Roughly 1.29 crore voters, thousands of whom lost their all in the cyclone, will exercise their franchise.

This right has come at a price. The little that was being done by way of relief work has been stopped to honour the election code of conduct. Many tehsildars in charge of assessing damage and compensation are busy with election duty and non-governmental agencies have been asked to stop distributing relief material till polling is through.

At Dhobbai which lost 60 men in the cyclone and which now survives on dole of APL (Above Poverty Line) rice - 20 kg per month, per family at Rs 4 a kilo, poll preoccupation could mean a delay in the delivery of that rice. So, Tohali Prasad Das who organises labour at Paradip laughed when he heard BJP star Vinod Khanna addressed a rally at Bolgarh in Begunia Assembly constituency, promising `development' work if the BJP-BJD candidate was elected. "Theseleaders," he pauses for effect. "They always say, `We will turn the soil into gold'," and his appreciative audience erupts into raucous laughter.

Despite an abundance of bauxite, coal, marine life and tourist attractions, Orissa firmly remains at the bottom half of the country's development index. Something like the Peru described by nineteenth century naturalist Antonio Raimondi: A beggar sitting on a bench of gold.

Successive governments have honed indifference into an official attitude. Mangrove forests are cleared to facilitate shrimp farming which has been banned by a Supreme Court order, leaving the coast without a buffer against cyclone waves, poorly constructed schools under the ambitiously termed Operation Blackboard collapse like straw houses in the cyclone, much needed polythene is misappropriated, food production, according to a recent economic survey, steadily declines and in Dhobbai, 70-year-old Diwakar Lanka says he has not seen the condition of his village better in hislifetime.

But there is change. During conversation young men casually use words like exit polls ("learned from the radio"), Ghanshyam a matriculate and a farmer, at present jobless because he lost his implements in the cyclone, talks about the need for "politicians to respect the people and not the other way around".

Lanka's son Ajay Kumar tries to explain what democracy means to him. "It means election first and then," he slips from Oriya to English, "personal sovereignty". Ajay completed his post graduation in political science from Utkal University. He returned to the village after he failed to find a job.

He wanted to educate children in his and neighbouring villages but foundthat he couldn't be a teacher without a BEd. "Now I don't have the money to study further," he says. Ravindra Swain, handsome in a blue pinstripe Louis Phillipe shirt ("came with the relief material"), another jobless farmer, rebukes quietly when asked who would he vote for. "Isn't that personal?," he says.

AtErsama, standing outside the local Congress office, Chaya Sahu, grandson perched on her hips, claps as she watches workers embark on a rally. Sahu came to Ersama after her house in village Arada was washed away. Does she support the Congress? "No." So why does she clap? "I clap for all leaders, all rallies. Since I have two hands I might as well clap," she says before trundling away with her grandson.