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The NEWS Sindicate presents -

LAST MILLENNIUMS WORST APOCALYPSE ORISSA HAD TO CONQUER

Prelude

As a very strong catastrphic cyclon Failin is rushing towards Orissa, it occurs to us that people and their rulers need be reminded of what had happened in 1999 when this State had been devastated by the severest cyclon of the last millenium. My son Saswat, then a reporter of Asian Age had risked his life in covering that killer cyclone day by day and later my most esteemed friend Prof. Biswaranjan and he co-authored the first authentic and elaborate book on the said cyclone which is so far the greatest storehouse of information in the matter. The book, captioned Knock and the Rise, was published in September 2000 by INSIGHT, Usha Mahal, Talamalisahi, Puri-752002. It is a great book with immense referal value. But as it is urgent to equip the people and administration with inputs on the last experience, I am giving here excerpts from the said book, with recommendation to every interested person to contact Sri Bibudharanjan, publisher of the original book in the above address. Subhas chandra Pattanayak
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Recalling the Day

Are people only national citizens, not at first, human beings? This is how Saswat Pattanayak in his first-hand coverage of the super cyclone, 1999 had summed up his observations. When only 22 years in age, as the staff reporter of the Orissa edition of The Asian Age, he had dared all dangers to cover the apocalypse bit by bit, since the very moment it had hit, even in deep dark night, devoid of light, under shrill of cries of people frightened like never before under that unfathomable fury of nature. The entire day on October 29, 1999 the sun had not dared to keep his contact; the sky had not dared to withhold the cataract. Power towers had fallen down; fallen down had the sky-touching trees. By the evening bosky Bhubaneswar was reduced to nothing but a denuded and forlorn city. Those who have not seen how wild was the wind may never believe how savagely violent was natures manners that night.

Roads were blocked by uprooted plants and broken branches; wires from fallen electric poles were lying like Grim Reapers scythe on the streets. Defying that dangerous condition, in that pernicious night of October 29, Saswat had rushed out of his secured home to cover the cyclone. As a working journalist, dared though I have many a dangers, when the night got deeper, in the harsh noise of the gale that had gone up to 250km/hour, I got the whizzing bites from fangs of fear perhaps for the first time in my life and, perhaps, that was as a father. I can never recapitulate the tension that had gripped me as my son Saswat was beyond my reach in that deadly night in finding out where and how our people were trying to overcome the cyclones ferocious might. But to my pride as a father and as a member of the fraternity, it is he from whose bylines I got the first picture of how the Capital had been mauled but how our people were bravely handling the holocaust. In fact, people in Bhubaneswar got the reports on the damages done by the cyclone for the FIRST TIME through The Asian (Utkal) Age as it was the only paper
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published and available to public, thanks to its resident editor Soumyajit Pattnaik and his team of young dedicated scribes. There was no TV, no Radio; but there was The Utkal Age (brought out on a single sheet). It was unfathomable how could they bring it out; but it WAS the reality. Beginning that very day, Saswat was seldom seen in home. Reaching the affected areas had become his mission. No wonder, it is he, amongst all the reporters in Orissa, who had had the highest number of bylines on the cyclone to his credit.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak Chief Executive, The NEWS Syndicate

Contents

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Official version of Orissas loss The Killer Cyclone: A reflection By Adhyapak Biswaranjan Life among the dead By Adhyapak Biswaranjan Saswats sample bylines in Asian Age The Sword of Damocles: I By Saswat Pattanayak The Sword of Damocles: II By Saswat Pattanayak

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Page 11 Page 13 Page 16

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Dedicated To every common man whose indomitable spirit to defeat the storming odds inspires us no end.

NOW TO CONTENTS

OFFICIAL VERSION OF ORISSAS LOSS

Loss of human life - 9615 Population affected - 12 million Cattle deaths - 400,000 Number of villages affected - 7,921 Damaged houses - 800,000 Agricultural area damaged - 1.67 million hectares 400 villages are still inaccessible

(Indian ambassadors Report on Orissa cyclone on May 14, 2000)

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The Killer Cyclone: A Reflection

Adhyapak Biswaranjan When the entire world was looking towards the end of the millennium in joyous anticipation, monstrous storm ravaged the coast of Orissa, mauled everything that lied in its path; in the process, undoing what had taken years to build. In sharp contrast to life giving air, the killer cyclone, which had its genesis in north Andaman sea, obliterated life and property and left people dazed over natures fury. Like Shellys West Wind, the killer cyclone wrecked havoc of the highest magnitude. Orissa, once known for its cultural heritage, rich architectural monuments and enchanting scenic beauty received worldwide media attention due to this fury of nature. Kofi Annon, the secretary general of UN termed the cyclone as an international calamity and since then the sympathy and funds are pouring in from all parts of the globe. Orissa is now recognized as a land of the poor and miserable lot waiting for others help to fight hunger, death and destruction caused by the killer cyclone. Not since the famine of 1886 that took 1.5 lakh lives, has Orissa faced a calamity of this magnitude. The loss in terms of human lives is numerous. And, the economic losses? Before the cyclone struck, Orissa was reveling in anticipation of bumper crop after nearly 10 years. Over 2 million of the 4.2 million tons of crops are expected to have been washed away. Trees, hundreds of years old, that once lined the village orchards and roads were uprooted. What price tags can you put on trees that take generations to grow? I went out on bicycle to look around our capital city after the cyclone cause havoc. The lush green Bhubaneswar had literally become treeless. Concrete buildings gazing at the sky, Bhubaneswar resembled a newlywed bride who is stripped of all her costumes and ornaments at the sudden death of her husband. What beauty does one see on treeless landscape? 11

How to manage the post cyclone crisis that has set in is actually the challenge before us. Further, care ought to be taken for the proper utilization of the funds that are arriving in good measure. The biggest challenge now is to garner resources for the long-term reconstruction of the state. At that juncture, the timely help extended by the government of Andhra Pradesh was commendable. Truck loads of food and essential commodities along with engineers, technicians, medical workers and volunteers arrived in quick time to render indispensable relief operations. Our friends who had arrived from Andhra were working on war footing for quick rehabilitation with a sense of involvement and committed zeal in spite of the apathy and indifferent attitude of their counterparts here. Looking back, I realize how in spite of the red alert declared much before the storm arrived, the state administration could not sufficiently make preparations to face the calamity. Needless to say, that a many precious lives could have been saved had the government been prepared beforehand. This is the time to forget differences, join hands and build up what the cyclone has destroyed in Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Paradip and other coastal districts. The political parties in general and politicians in particular should not try to cash in on the miseries of the people. The call of the hour is to give up all kinds of selfish motives and narrow partisan interests and intensions and work in the proverbial spirit of service to mankind is the service to God. Time has come to fulfill the promises one made to the voters at the time of the elections. When people moved by the plight of cyclone-affected have rushed to the affected ares from all parts of the country to volunteer their services to the needy and miserable, it lies on the politicians of this land to display such a spirit. This state can proudly boast of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das whose service and sacrifices can be emulated by generations if not because of anything, because of their sheer selfless character. The state fondly remembers him and what holds sway at this hour of crisis is how far its citizens live up to him.

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Life among the dead

Adhyapak Biswaranjan

We found them surrounded by scores of carcasses. The corpses of human beings. Livestock and pets were scattered all over the place. Those who escaped the storms jaws have now somewhat come to terms with the reality. They could no longer afford to continue grieving over their losses, both emotional and material. The stench emanating from the corpses had already polluted the environment. It needed immediate cleaning. The natives of Mathasahi joined hands with few volunteers and we found them busy cremating the carcasses. When we reached Mathasahi in Ersama block, a fortnight had already gone by since the killer cyclone devastated the land and the lives, yet we could find signs of havoc the storm had left behind. It was not possible to reach out to the millions rendered homeless and who were fighting starvation and epidemic waiting to be helped and provided with the basic needs like food and water. However, we were determined to do our bit. Hence, we set out to Mathasahi, the native village of Narayan, the attendant of my college. We were a small team of volunteers comprising our Principal and few more colleagues. Narayan chose to guide us through ,and on the way he narrated circumstances in which his old father had died during the cyclone. Mathasahi is, rather was, (for, the storm had obliterated all traces of human habitation), a village of around 50 families. The villegers mostly lived in make shift thatched houses with the exception of Narayans pucca single storied house. 13

This village is nearly 20 kms away from the sea, but the intensity of the cyclone was so high that sea water totally engulfed this village and swept away all that the village had. Mothers could not resist the force of the water for long and their babies were snatched away by the sea from their arms. After the cyclone subsided and the water receded devastating this hamlet, corpses were found hanging from tamarind trees; perhaps the dead did cling on to the branches for their lives. The army personnel deployed in relief operation and other activities like cleaning up the environment found a dead body with a suitcase in his hand. The suitcase contained currency worth Rs.60 thousand and 100 gms of gold. What an irony ! The wealth was saved and the life was lost! Those who have survived the killer cyclone have little to look forward to. Most victims are in a state of shock watching their relatives, kith and kin dead in front of them. They have lost their livelihood, their cattle, rendered homeless and their land will remain infertile for years to come. The trees that once gave a lush green look to this small village could hardly withstand the fury of nature. Mathasahi, like many other villeges in the coastal districts of the state, bears the signs of the havoc wrecked by the cyclone. We decided to handover the relief materials to the representatives of each family of the village. They were a disciplined lot and accepted the blankets, dry food like biscuits and bread with gratitude. We requested the volunteers to store the medicines and halogen tablets we carried with us to the villages whenever the need arises. I was overwhelmed to find that although the villagers of Mathasahi were still struggling to recover from the trauma of the cyclone and needed clothes and medicines urgently, they were concerned about the people who suffered a similar fate. The storm had devastated the people of Mathasahi, but it failed to strip them of their humane values like ki9ndness and fellow feeling. They insisted that, we distribute the remaining blankets and food items in the harijan locality. It struck as to how rarely we find this kind of generosity amongst the so-called elite of the society. 14

The killer cyclone took away the lives from them, but could hardly dampen their spirit. It required more than courage and spirit to dig out the dead bodies of their relatives and strangers from the mud and slush and perform the last rights. On our way home, we visited the homeless at Baurisahi of Biribati block. Our companion Rabi Rautray belongs to this village. We distributed the remaining food, medicine and winter ware among the people of Bauri sahi. Trucks loaded with rice, chuda, biscuits, candles, blankets etc had been sent from different parts of the country for the cyclone affected people of Orissa and were standing in long lines waiting for direction. The army personnel were engaged in supervision of these materials. We also noticed that these personnel were the ones who were guiding these trucks to different parts of the cyclone affected area. They termed it as Operation Sahayata very rightly. There was no dearth of relief material, as we could see at that moment; but the herculean task was to supply these to the victims waiting at the most inaccessible places. The sincere efforts of the army personnel and the selfless service of the volunteers overwhelmed us. The sun was about to set. The prospects of millions without a roof over their heads in the dark cold night surrounded by the dead terrified me. However, I comforted my sad heart hoping that they would look forward to the day light and somehow cope with their distress and get on with their lives. The frightened will eventually get over their fear, the homeless will build up a sheter with the help of the fellowmen. The hand of friendship will wipe out the tears for sure. The essence of humanism will certainly eliminate the emanating stench.

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SASWATS SAMPLE BYLINES IN ASIAN AGE

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Sword of Damocles: I
Scene I Sawat Pattanayak What do We Call It A a journalist, I have to weigh words while using them. Therefore, have to revolt against the words conventionally used, if they conflict with my measure of balance. They called it super cyclone. And they wanted to term it as a national disaster. Super Ccyclone to something that would prove to be a source of sustenance to few and a source of superfluity and luxury to many. For the idle, Super is amusing. For the privileged, its worth a causerie. For the volunteers,it qualifies the magnanimity. For the scientists, its a substitute for their want of words. Lack of further elaboration should not imply my detachment. A term as killer cyclone must replace this.
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For whatever happened in October 99 must be stopped from being treated as a category. A cyclone of such magnifude must be created in its dimension of sweeping away peoples lives. It must be treated in its dimension of causing widespread destruction. Not in isolation to the man-made factors responsible for the magnitude that it had. It involved peoples deaths and lives. That is the reason why the slogan to term it as a national disaster must have to be condemned. An artificial, makebelieve consensus to term it as thus was, unfortunately politically motivated. The demand, which found support from innumerable quarters, was a malicious attempt. A loss of at least 50,000 people (pardon my unofficialquotations-official ones have been attached before for the sake of further research) for no fault of theirs, is ironical. Investigations into the causes will follow. But categorising them into a national populace and term18

ing the disaster as national is the most well laid plan to shove the repercussions of such disasters into obscurity. Does any disaster know nations? Will an earthquake occur in India and would it pardon Pakistan on religious grounds? Are people only national citizens, not at first, human beings qualifying for decent human standards? Accepting aid from selected Indian states and refusing it from others, rallying around for terming the sad episode as a national disaster to serve whatever purpose and a central governments ruminations over whether to grant such a status that would force it to release required funds. When, in fact, all human beings irrespective of nationalities or regions should have come forward to aid, assist and empathise, what formed the precedent were demands and causes most avoidable and undesirable. Not a character of India. Not character of Orissa politicians. It was a collective character of us human beings when we were bidding good-bye to a millennium! A character better off. A character worth introspecting over.
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Killer Cyclone99 recorded the biggest disaster and in its aftermath, the biggest mental block caused by narrow political squabbles and parochial considerations. Scene II Whats The Tag Got To Do With It? It came as no surprise to me. Even the tag that described it as the worst human disaster was no surprise. Orissa is one of the most cyclone-and-flood prone regions in the peninsula. Record has that. Population is a factor. The most densely populated areas of the world are the most disaster-prone ones. Even the US coastal areas, which are home to more than half their population, get between 800 to 1,100 tornadoes every year. Texas and Florida in United States, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa in Canada, Mexico City in Mexico or Okinawa and Tokyo in Japan are the most dense, most vulnerable. There is a slight contrast there. The magnitude has never affected the populace in other places as it did to
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There is nothing unnatural about a natural disaster. But why Orissa stands out from other disaster-prone areas of the planet is the very unnatural cause-andeffect sequence of the cyclone. Scene III The Big Assistance Myth We have moved the government of India by memoranda from time to time beginning 1990 for allotment of funds to meet the situation arising out of grave natural calamities. But the Government of India refused all these mercilessly ignoring our grievances ........ The state government has also all along been insisting to get a corpus of Rs 110 crores per annum for Calamity Relief Fund. This has not been acceded to by the Government of India. (White Paper on Natural Calamities in Orissa, July-Sept. 1994, Revenue department). A hapless state administration was content with the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund, even as Orissa was yet to get relief from its cyclone-hit situations. Plain unable to cope with the unforeseen devastation, help for the government was not just a sanction away.
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A total of Rs 15 lakh was allocated as ex-gratia amount at the rate of Rs 25,000 for each bereaved family. Rs 10,000 each was provided for fully damaged house and Rs 5,000 for partially damaged. Beyond that the state feigned helplessness and pleaded for assistance. The Calamity Relief Fund for Orissa is Rs 47 crore per annum, out of which Government of India contributes 75%. Due to heavy floods in Aska in November 1990, the State Government had availed of financial assistance of Rs 21.88 crore from the Central government, which is being adjusted every year from 1991-92 to the extent of Rs 5.47 crores to be fully recouped in four annual installments. According to official versions, almost the entire corpus is exhausted not only on pure relief but also on other relief items like health measures, fodder to livestock and seed subsidies. Under the procedure communicated in Government of Indias letter no. 43(1) PF 1/79 dated 25.04.79, when a state is hit by any natural calamity of more than moderate severity necessitating relief measures exceeding the amount of margin money, the state government is to approach the ministry of agriculture and irrigation of the central government, for deputation
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of a central team to make an on-the spot assessment of the damage caused and the requirement of additional expenditure to be incurred by the state. When cyclone hit the state during December 810,1981, claiming 41 lives and destroying properties worth Rs. 246.31 lakhs, the relief was to the tune of Rs. 148 lakhs. The honeymoon with the Central government was seemingly over, with a fund of Rs. 32 lakh only reaching the state during the calamities of July 1994. Having to share more woes in its cup, the state has not received even a paisa from the ambitious long-term action plan for the period of 199394 to 1997-98 applicable to the undivided districts of Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput. Scene IV The Actual Assistance A Centre refusing to recognise a disaster as a national one so as to justify its stand over the aid or the lack of it was the real assistance: an abstract assistance based on speeches, press conferences and surveys. On October 27, state BJP leaders said that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had showed due sympa-23

thy to the people of Orissa by immediately announcing Rs 250-cr advance assistance and assuring special relief grant to affected people. There was not a single penny released from the National Calamity Relief Fund. It was just an advance plan assistance assured. CM Gamang later said on November 11, PM said he was giving the State Government Rs 50 crores, but did not specify under what head the money was being given. Later it turns out that it was allocated as plan advance and not as a grant. During the time of life and death, announcements and assurances came handy! Scene V PMs Practice of Arial Survey If devastation could come from the sky, would the panacea too?

Peoples were looking at the sky!

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Prime Minister Vajpayee was on records to have conducted an aerial survey of the cyclone affected area and taken stock of the situation at a review meeting with state government representatives on October 25, following destruction at Ganjam. He had even done it two days before. Seat-belts fIrmly secured, the PM had a birds eye-view over Berhampur. Without stopping to ask as to when electricity could be restored in the 22 blocks and why even not a single tarpaulin had arrived at the district that was promised, to begin with, 20,000.

Scene-VI
The Fact That It Was Known As reports from various sources say, the state was not properly alert to what was going to happen even when the course of the depression was monitored by the meteorological installations all over the world and the major radio and television weather reports gave the account of the latest position of the storm issuing from the depression. In spite of that, the administrative failure in tackling the whole situation is incredible in the context of what could be done in the closing years of the 20th century.
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Is that myth or reality? It was known before it struck on October 18 morning. It was known before it hit on Octoer 28 night. Chronicle: October 16: Very severe cyclonic storm was set to cross the Orissa-north Andhra Pradesh coast between Kalingapatnam and Paradip near Gopalpur on Monday morning (Oct. 18). By late on Sunday night, the storm remained particularly static, 50 km south-east of Gopalpur. According to the cyclone warning bulletin issued by the meteorological office at Bhubaneswar, at 21.30 hrs IST, the storm was likely to severely affect Ganjam, Gajapati, Nayagarh, Puri, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts. October 27: According to the latest met office reports, a severe cyclonic storm was located over the east central bay about 600 km south east of Paradip. The storm which was moving in a northwesterly direction was likely to cross Orissa coast between Puri and
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Balasore by Thursday (Oct.28) midnight. Rainfall was likely to occur at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few parts of the state during the next 48 hours. Reports informed that the storm lay centered at latitude 17 degree north and longitude 90.5 degree east and was expected to intensify further. While the gale reaching a speed of 180 to 200 km per hour was expected to blow in Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Kendrapada, Bhadrak and Khurda districts. Any contradictions there? Not warning-wise, at least. Scene VII What Do They Do In Warning? The Science And The Planning: The Indian Space Research Organisation has strung 250 storm-warning receivers all along the Indian coast. In a time of crisis, a satellite is supposed to switch on the receivers, which broadcast a siren and put out warning in the local language. The Met office insists 28 of the 34 hooters in Orissa were active.
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No one could possibly stop a killer cyclone like the one that devasted and set Orissa back by a few years. But do we have a disaster management plan that works? Orissa being a cyclone country should have had hundreds of concrete shelters. Otherwise, evacuation would remain a joke. Orissa has only 21 concrete shelters, each capable of holding at most 2,000 people. As always, no warning reached many thousands. Simple measures like providing satellite telephones and back up power systems could have helped. That it took almost a week before the state and the Centre could swing into action to provide rudimentary rescue and relief measures is an indication of just how bad things can get. The Met office blamed the tardy reaction of the state administration. The state looked to the Centre, which insisted its role is limited to providing funds and keeping Central organisations such as the army and the railways on standby to help.
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We. also give guidance and training. On. the ground, a disaster has to be managed by the state, said Central Relief Commissioner Bhagat Singh to India Today. The state too had a relief commissioner and district level natural disaster management committees. The problem was, no one knew who was actually in charge and there was very little coordination. At the Centre, the Natural Disaster Management Committee is under the Ministry of Agriculture whereas many state relief commissioners work under the Revenue Department, some having independent charge. The result: chaos. The relief in certain parts did not begin till a week or 10 days later. When New Delhi had given the danger signal of the cyclone two days earlier it is not clear why the follow-up steps for disaster management were not initiated straightaway. Why were not polythene sheets, the equipmem for sinking wells in dry areas, sachets of drinking water, tents, apart from food and medicine, not collected beforehand? Scene VIII Lessons From Bangladesh
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Is Poverty An Excuse? When the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made a courtesy call on the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Durban, South Africa where all the Commonwealth heads of states or governments had gone to attend the Commonwealth Summit, the Orissa cyclone tragedy came up during the discussion and the Bangladesh Prime Minister conveyed her sincerest sympathy for the Orissa cyclone victims. The Indian Prime Minister paid his gratitude for this kind gesture from the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and extolled very heartily about Bangladeshs success in evolving a capable disaster management mechanism. The Indian Prime Ministers appreciation of Bangladesh in respect of disaster management is no exaggeration. Over the years Bangladesh has really learned a lot from its experiences of natural disasters, particularly the disasters like cyclonic storms originating from deep depression over the Bay of Bengal. Years ago, the loss of life and property in Bangladesh due to severe cyclonic storms rushing from the Bay of Bengal was colossal. But as matters stand today, the loss of life under such predicaments is surprisingly low.
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This has been possible certainly due to evaluation of an effective disastermanagement mechanism all across the country. As soon as any depression is detected over the Bay, the radio and the television start repeatedly broadcasting the warning messages as received from the meteorological office. The district administrations everywhere start taking preparations for rescue and relief work as per the spirit of the warning message. Shelter houses have been built all along the coastal belt.There are brilliant disaster managemenr education programmes-from the radio and the television which are broadcast round the year to make people aware as to what to do during the impending disastrous weather conditions. Through all these practices Bangladesh has been able to build up a network of rescue and relief which it can effectively utilise at the time of real necessity. In spite of disadvantages which prevail in a poor developing country like Bangladesh, its growing efficiency in tackling natural disasters has caught the world attention.
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Scene IX The Assurances Prime Minister Atal Behari Yajpayee, appealed to political parties on November 29 not to exploit the Orissa cyclone for electoral purposes. They should not approach the crisis with an eye on the coming Assembly election in the State, he said while intervening in a debate on the Orissa cyclone in the Lok Sabha. He assured the members that the Centre would spare no effort to help the Orissa Government cope with the aftermath of the cyclone. There would be no dearth of funds, he declared pointing out that the Government has already decided to treat the situation as a national calamity of rarest of rare severity. The Prime Minister said the funds were available in plenty. The Centre had provided funds to the State Government under various heads, besides advancing the Plan assistance. The total amount advanced to the State was more than Rs.1200-crores. Neighboring States and international agencies were also contribut32

ing their bit, he informed. Assuring the people of Orissa that there would be no shortfall of funds from the Centre for the victims, Mr.Vajpayee emphasised that political parties should vow to rebuild the cyclone-ravaged State and not indulge in petty partisan politics for electoral gains. The Prime tvlinister said the entire nation, joined by the international community, was extending all possible assistance to give succour to the victims.He said over Rs. 1,000 crores had already been announced for relief and reconstruction operations and the task force was in the process of working out a comprehensive action plan. But these were mere announcements and assurances, materialisation of which is yet to be made public. Scene X Counters The National Calamity The Controversy That Continued: The Centre expressed its inability to declare the cyclone that lashed Orissa as a national calamity. Orissa

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chief minister Giridhar Gamang, who was in New Delhi on November 12 met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the evening, requested him to declare the cyclone of Orissa as a national calamiry, which was turned down by the Vajpayee government. In an interview to The Free Press Journal, Gamang, stated that he once again renewed his demand for declaring the Orissa cyclone as a national calamity. Vajapayee, however, expressed his inability, saying the NDA government is treating it as a national calamity. The Prime Minister told me that there is a difference only in the nomenclature, remarked Gamang. Gamang, however, reminded him that it was not only his demand which he made on October 17 in Bhubaneswar but also the demand of the all-party meeting convened by him after the cyclone. Vajpayee insisted that since there is no provision in the Constitution for the same, a procedure and consensus would have to be evolved whereby a tragedy of this kind can be termed as national calamity. Gamang expressed his satisfaction over the measures undertaken by the Central government though
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he wanted that the Centre should adopt the procedure soon to declare it as a national calamity. At the BJP briefing on the following day, party spokesperson M Venkaiah Naidu said ever since the framing of the Constitution in 195O, never has any calamity in the country been declared as a national calamity. A broad consensus has to be evolved before taking a decision to this effect, declared Naidu. Replying to queries made by mediapersons, Naidu said, Gamang should first attend to the rescue of the cyclone affected people, before one can evolve a consensus on declaring a tragedy as a national calamity. In the Tenth Finance Commission, there is no provision to declare any devastation as national calamity. In fact, even during the eanhquake in Latur, the tragedy was not declared as a national calamity, he informed. Even as the number of the dead and the devastation occurred after the cyclone in Orissa was yet to be ascertained, politics had already commenced between the Congress-led state government and the

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Vajpayee led government at the Centre. National calamity: an issue in confusion Mr. Vajpayee should rise above petty politics and behave like a statesman, said former Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. Rabi Ray, on Ntwember 20 urging the Prime Minister to formally declare the cyclone in Orissa a national calamity. If no code existed for formally declaring the cyclone a national calamity, instead of saying this, the Prime Minister should take steps to formulate a code in this regard and declare it a national calamity without delay, he said. Once the Prime Minister formally declares the devastation a national calamity and makes an appeal to the international financial institutions and other organisations to come forward with help, there would be no dearth of of money for rehabilitating the lakhs of people who had lost their homes and the means of livelihood, Mr. Ray said. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asserted in the Lok Sabha on November 20 that the Centre was treating the devastation caused by the cyclone in Orissa as
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a national calamity and asked all parties to desist from politicising the tragedy. Intervening in a special discussion on the post-cyclone situation in Orissa, Mr Vajpayee said right from day one, we have been treating it as a national calamity. On the demand by members that the destruction be declared a national calamity, Mr Vajpayee contended that there was no need for this formality as the Tenth Finance Commission had spoken only about treating such a situation as national calamity. Citing the example of Kargil intrusion, the Prime Minister said the nation effectively fought the Pakistani intruders without formally declaring a war. Mr Vajpayee stressed that it was for the Orissa government to ensure that relief from the Centre and other agencies reached the victims expeditiously. Period. Defence Minister George Fernandes on November 20 in the Rajya Sabha quoted documents to prove that there was no legal provision to declare Orissas
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super-cyclone a national calamity The Minister who spoke on the Orissa tragedy as the head of the Cabinet Task Force on the calamity was replying to the view that the State was going without substantial help as the Centre declined to declare the tragedy a national calamity. As the minister quoted from the ninth and the 10th Finance Commission reports, several Left members observed that Mr Fernandes was unnecessarily stressing the point. This is politics. cried Jibon Roy (CPI-M). He was joined in the protest by his colleagues. The Defence Minister raised his voice to high pitch: there is a charge on the government that it is deliberately not declaring the cyclone a national calamity. I am only replying to the points raised by the members quoting the 10th Finance Commission report. Mr J. Chittaranjan (CPI) said there was a demand from several parties to declare the calamity a national calamity. The minister said there was no provision to declare it
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so. The Prime Minister had from the fIrst day maintained that it was treating the tragedy a national calamity. Since then this had been the stand of the government. Has the government decided to declare it a national calamity or not, questioned Mr Oscar Fernandes (Congress). The minister marshalled views of the very first Cabinet meet in the matter. The External Affairs Minister and leader of the House Jaswant Singh thundered that the members should not to get into a sterile and pointless controversy. Answering the view that Orissa could get help beyond norms, he said, the norms were that the States should have their own calamity funds and Orissa did not have any. In spite of that the State had been granted relief of Rs 500 crore. Ignorance coupled with helplessness That was a revelation that must have brought the House to a standstill.

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Ignorance of the members was coupled only with their helplessness to deal with their mode of arguments. Interestingly, when Mr Fernandes and Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar replied to the debate, the Congress benches were nearly empty. The Defence Minister said the Central Government had advance information about the Oct 29-30 cyclone from the Navy and on Oct 29 itself Army columns had left for Orissa. Mr Jaswant Singh said the Navy in a supreme act of heroism had cleared the Paradeep Port despite adverse weather. All cheers for the Kargil workers and of course Fernandes, their hero! Scene XI Adoption Politics In districts that were adopted, buzzword became the states that had done so. And for State politicians, the adoption business was hard to comprehend.
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When leaders were a baffled lot, people could not be far behind. Bijoy Mohapatra, fame of Opposition Biju Janata Dal innocently thundered: The adoption scheme is a hoax. How can one state adopt another? Constitutionally one state cant make budgetary provisions for another. The state of his own State apparently missed Arvind Behera, Orissas tribal development secretary and a key coordinator of the relief operations: We are yet to understand the adoption scheme Andhra Pradesh took charge of Ganjam. Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu became a sort of idol here for the promptness with which he responded. His men were there before Gamangs. Naidus popularity shocked even the so-called intelligentsia, which found it hard to cope with. Reasons unknown; but hero-worshipping of Naidu was in full force when other states chipped in. No, said Gamang. Reasons again unknown; but what was hinted at by the socialites was that the states that had come forward were BJP-ruled. Even 150 Gujarat
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doctors came and were forced to sit idle. Notwithstanding that Gujarat was the first State to have actually come to the aid (The satelite phone had the trick).And a Congress government at the State would not allow that in view of the coming Assembly polls where voters would decide basing upon the receiving ends. That was a blessing in disguise for the ones who always hoped that someday the leaders would realise what the people want in life. A decent life. Realising that, better be Miss Late than Miss Never, it was left to Sonia Gandhi to launch the Congress adoption scheme. She, the chief of the party, paid visits to Jajpur, Kenclrapara and Jagatsinghpur. So Rajasthan adopted Bhadrak; Delhi adopted Puri (sent a minister and four bureaucrats, gave Rs 5 cr and would rebuild homes, schools). Maharashtra adopted Jagatsinghpur (would build model village in Jagatsinghpur), Karnataka adopted Kendrapara and Madhya Pradesh, ]ajpur. The situation turned a trifle ludicrous when tiny
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and faraway Goa adopted Keonjhar; Arunachal, Balasore and Nagaland adpoted Mayurbhanj. The first thing each of these State Governments did was to find Oriya officers working for them and despatch them post-haste to their home state. In all, eight Congress led State regimes adopted a district each. Scene XII DN Padhi And Polythene Scam One of the few offices that could boast of having electricity in Bhubaneswar during the time when most were groping in dark was the office of D.N. Padhi, the state relief commissioner, one who was suspended for violating the rules on polythene procurement. On November 19, I had issued instructiom to go for an open tender by inviting quotations from the suppliers. But instead of inviting quotations, the SRC quoted a price of Rs 74 per kg for the polythene rolls, informed the CM on November 28. Bowing to pressure from all quarters, the Orissa Gov43

ernment on December 18 ordered a judicial inquiry into the polythene scam. Chief minister Biswal, who had takenover from Gamang, made the announcement on the last day of the eleventh Assemblys final session to the effect that a sitting High Court judge would conduct the probe. He, however, did not spell out either its terms of reference or the deadline for submitting the report. The opposition parties kept heckling the government on the issue and reminded it that a judicial probe would serve no purpose and that it might meet the same fate as those ordered in the case of the R.Udayagiri and Puri firing incidents reports of which were yet to be submitted. But this did not move the CM. This announcement was also viewed with Suspicion because only two days before, the Government had rejected the Oppositions demand for a CBI probe into the scam. Speculation was rife that since it was the last day of the current Assembly and elections were round the corner, Biswals announcement would at least act as a face-saving device for the Congress during the campaign.
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Case by CBI The CBI registered a case against three senior officers of the Orissa government on July 28, 2000 for criminal misconduct and abuse of official position in the procurement of polythene rolls after the October cyclone in the state. According to official sources, the investigating agency, which registered the case here on Thursday, named D N Padhi, an IAS officer in the rank of Principal Secretary, who was the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) when the polythene sheets were procured to provide temporary shelter to the cyclone hit people.The other two officers were P K Mallick, deputy secretary and S N Nayak, Assistant Financial Advisor in the SRCs office. Padhi is presently posted as principal secretary in the Energy department. The CBI is investigating, what has come to be known as the polythene scam, as per the orders of the Orissa High Court in May 2000.

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According to the allegation, higher prices were paid for recycled polythene materials resulting in loss of revenue to the state exchequer and illegal gain to the private suppliers. Scene XIII Chief Secretary Takes a Flight Was Orissa prepared? Chief Secretary S.B.Mishra was the only legally competent authority to give the answer; but he took a flight to USA. I knew two days ahead and so did everyone else, said Prasanna Hota, Orissas principal resident commissioner in Delhi to India Today. But when they say 260 kmph it takes time for it to sink in. We kept thinking and hoping it would pass. Hope wasnt enough. On October 28, the phones were still working, and over a lakh people - a minuscule number - were evacuated, though the police often had to deliver a few lathi blows to make people move. This isnt Dallas or Florida, argued Hota. Here a small hut with a few brass pots and two chickens is a mans total capital and he will not leave it behind
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at any cost. Another from Hota: I have never heard a satellite receiver gives out a siren or announcement. For the fifteen days following the cyclone, local advertisements in the local dailies gave the relief commissioners phone number for the needy to seek help. But the number 403833 just did not exist! While around 40 per cent of the secretarial staff were not attending their offices and had fled to their villages, concerned to know the fate of their near and dear ones, truckloads of material, including clothes, utensils, food and other essential items lay stranded in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Orissas coffers were empty and it had only the previous week persuaded the Centre to release funds to pay the salaries of government officials. When the Centre released Rs 500 crore as relief for the storm, instead of spending the money to bring succour to the millions affected, the first thing the State Government did was to use Rs 100 crore to pay salaries to its staff. And truly becoming of the convention they have been practising, the officers went merrymaking.
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Puri District Collector P.K. Mahapatra was nowhere to be seen in his district office. The government had to appoint another in rush on October 28! Distrit Collector of Bhadrak, Loknath Mishra left his post and his district to visit his family, and was later replaced on November 6. Kendrapara District Collector N.P. Mohapatra did not venture out to see the condition of his District even after seven days. And did not leave his post either. Jajpur Collector Suresh Patnaik was replaced for a N.P. Mohapatra act. The motivating force behind the Chief Secretary S.B. Mishras visit to US and not to be left sans emulating him, the mass leave by many bureaucrats, was beyond knowledge, but within the media guesses. Mishra flew out to the US on November 9 to see his ailing daughter leaving behind a administration which was largely responsible for its own hapless condition. Shame!

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Scene XIV The Western Media The worst natural disasters to occur in any part of the world in recent times was a tragedy which was given a short shrift by the western media. The Washington Posts ombudsman Mr E.R. Shipp, writing in his Sunday column in November said the papers coverage had not pleased some of its readers. In October, Londons Evening Standard carried an article critical of the western medias inadequate coverage of the Orissa disaster that had affected an estimated 15 million people. The Posts ombudsman noted the cyclone never made it into the papers front page. The story was reported by the New Delhi-based correspondent, Pamela Constable, two weeks after the event and it was carried on page A 27. One Post reader wondered if the paper was ignoring the story because Orissa is not in Europe and does not have oil underground.
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After evaluating the international news that has been in the Post since the cyclone hit, another reader concluded, The Post (has) undercovered such a disaster, which is the biggest devastation in India in the past 100 years. The Post ombudsman contrasted the papers treatment of the Orissa disaster with a November 13 front page story on the earthquake that rocked Turkey. He noted that when there was an earthquake in Turkey last summer, it too was frontpaged for seven consecutive days. Similarly, an earthquake in Taiwan made front page twice. The ombudsman quoted The Washington Posts Assistant Managing Editor for Foreign news, Mr Phil Bennett, as saying, We were a little late on that (the Orissa cyclone). Constables story was not deemed front page news because the urgency had passed. Mr Bennett denied that there is a sort of geographic determinism in which disasters we pay attention to more than others. The Post ombudsman added, The Post and other major news operations have long been accused of ignoring some parts of the world. The accusation was heard loudly last summer when comparisons were made by international relief workers and by some news media that the Balkan conflicts received far more cov50

erage than comparable struggles in Africa. The ombudsman also pointed out that the Post carried a full wire service story on November 2, a story that got wrong the name of the capital of OrissaBaleshwar instead of Bhubaneswar. Scene XV Our Representatives Post Berhampur cyclone in the third week of October, Parliament was in session. Members demanded a discussion on the inadequacy of relief. They were assured that the Business Committees of the two Houses would allot time. But the introduction of the Insurance Bill was preferred to a debate on the devastation in Berhampur. And when the Killer Cyclone finally caught the administration off guard and without a mental or material preparedness, the authorities were criminally slack and sluggish. Clueless collectors went on leave, stayed away even after learning about the cyclone.
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Kuldip Nayar in a column wrote, Neither duty nor conscience tugged them to return to serve the people. Scene XVI The Lapses First, the calculations. State, the NGOs and the media failed to calculate the actual losses. It took a Mahesh Bhatt, after three months of the cyclone to discover that two corpses were lying unseen at Padampur village. and that the ration shopwallah in Erasama was still selling rice for Rs 4.50 instead of Rs 4. The number of dead used to increase and decrease at will. The number of homeless and the amount of rations - ditto. A concerned Chief Secretary S.B. Mishra presiding over a conference on unwed mothers in Bhubaneswar
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in the post-cyclone period announced that all reports in the media were motivated and that kerosene, rice and other essential commodities were available at normal prices. There was no cause for panic at all. And of course, no one had died of starvation! Media must be wrong somewhere then. Or our Babus. Time will tell. In the meantime, the statistics went on defying the bureaucracys claims. Just the people getting affected did not have the courage to defy. They were hungry. Their cattle, the means of their livelihood, numbering over six lakh were dead. The standing crop along the 480 km from Puri to Balasore was lost. In the capital city of Bhubaneswar, flaunting 600 temples, 60 per cent of its populace was clueless. Little less fortunate than the Babus had to stand in queue for kerosene that was unavailable; for the rice that set the fight rolling. Lootings on highway continued. Midnight tryst with hungry souls carrying bhujalies became a routine.
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Three weeks after the cyclone, an estimated 13,000 tonnes of food, close to 40 per cent of what the Centre had pumped into the state was yet to be distributed. Rs 52 crore emergency relief fund remained unspent. Only a third of the dhotis and saris rushed to the state reached the needy. In most of the towns of the 14 affected Districts, power and drinking water were yet to be restored. Almost half of the 80,000 phones remained dead (149 of the 270 telephone exchanges remained non-functional). Chlorine tablets to purify the water contaminated by putrefying carcasses were in short supply. There was stocks of just nine lakh tablets whereas if only 10 lakh people were to take four tablets a day for a week, 280 lakh tablets were be used. Scene XVII
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Epidemic Gastroenteritis claimed five lives and affected over 100 in Berhampur on October 27. Officials as usual said it was a case of 1 death and 44 affected. No wonder, S.R.C. D.N. Padhi said on November 8 that there was no epidemic in any form notwithstanding rise in cases of diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, skin infections and other water-borne diseases. Scene XVIII Essential commodities Commodities are not so styled for the babus and the ministers. It is the disadvantaged people under starvation or slow starvation, the people whose income fails to meet the rising cost of living, the people who are unemployed and drudging, it is they for whom certain commodities are earmarked as essential with prices fixed by the authorities meantto be sold only throgh officially authorised shops and agencies styled as the Public Distribution System (PDS).
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But price of these commodities went on spiralling recording steep rise without checks because of the avarice in Babus and Ministers and their nexus with unscrupulous traders in that catastrophic condition . Following the cyclone, scarcity, hoarding, black marketeering and plain unavailability of essential commodities became a norm. The kerosene rose from Rs 4 to Rs 15-18 per litre, rice from Rs 12 to Rs 18-20 a kg, flour from Rs 10 to Rs 13, potato from Rs 6 to Rs 10-12, onion from Rs 8 to Rs 11 per kg. Green vegetables disappeared from the markets. Panic purchase resulted in the sale of more than 100,000 litres of petrol in Bhubaneswar alone. This had the role of the rumours about unavailability of the same following strikes by truck-owners. Chaos reigned. Scene XIX The Cataclysms
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(Here below are a few Headlines from The Utkal Age, the Orissa Edition of The Asian Age, which was the only English daily being published from Bhubaneswar during the initial post-cyclone phase, as reminders.) November 2: Apocalypse: 1.6 crores affected, 50 lakh rendered homeless. 1500 troops pressed into service, air dropping on. Astaranga, Kakatpur worst hit. Epidemic threat looms large. Relief convoys looted on highway. Capital mauled beyond recoghition. Cuttack threatened by stagnant water. Long queues for petrol in city stations. Rumours fly thick and fast. November 3: Paradip is shattered (5,000 killed), After the cyclone, its flood in Bhadrak. Worst feared in Jambu and Mahakalpada. More troops to assist relief work. 300 feared killed in Cuttack District. Cyclone dries up milk belt. Twin city still groping in dark. Paradip runs aground in cyclone deluge. Medical teams to prevent epidemic. Nandankanan is devastated, trees in wild tangle. Panic on NH-5 as robbers terrorise truck drivers. November 4: Kendrapara survives on cattle-feed (people found to be gulping handfuls of kunda and chokad and boiled roots). Epidemic breaks out in
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Govindpur. Five lakh marooned in Jagatsinghpur. Forty villages remain marooned in Keonjhar district. November 5: 27 die of starvation (5,000 bodies decaying, epidemic threat in Erasama). 60 per cent yet to receive relief by road: SRC. Colleges and schools closed. Ham radios keep network alive. Kerosene at PDS prices draws long queues. Air, rail passengers are still stranded. More workers needed to restore power. November 6: Expired medicines for victims (Kakatpur health-care centre provides medicines which have crossed their expiry dates by several months. PM just completes a ritual visit. PM disappoints: Grants state a meagre Rs. 100 crore. Vajpayee visit delays air dropping. Seven more die of starvation, total toll 34. State suffered crop loss worth Rs 750 crore. Epidemic grows despite doctors. November 7: Confusion: Is it Centre or State in charge? Polythene rolls for our corpses? asks homeless Baliparna. Diwali in dark: No licence for crackers. Gujarat proposes one devastated district per state. Oswal gas leakage leads to panic. Epidemic-hit areas yet to be identified. Water sheet rolled over Basudevpur. Sale of kerosene slips on mismanage58

ment road. Bhadrak reels under raging flood, but relief is miles away. November 8: Rabi crop a chimera (Irrigation system affected, all panchayat institutions damaged), RBI direction for expeditious farmer loans. No help from state police at Paradip, says Andhra counterpart. Orphaned by the cyclone, they are deserted by State. Mayurbhanj villages hit by floods (10 bodies recovered, rivers Salandi, Kusei change courses). Relief fails to reach 80 villages of Keonjhar District. Entire paan belt wiped out, betel business is badly hit. 95% schools and colleges in affected Districts are damaged. November 9: Politics starve Orissa. Mercury shoots up (Ten degree rise in temperature since the cyclone day). Four more deaths due to starvation. Armymen thrash cop trying to loot relief. CDMOs office gheraoed by drivers. Pressure for electricity to VVIPs. No epidemic in any form so far: SRC. 20 die of starvation in Paradip area. November 10: Sea saw seven, gulps six (Sole village of Satabhaya panchayat survives Natures latest bout of fury) It came like an invading army, recounts victim. Dead and the alive exist in cheek by jowl. Snakebite cases creep up, Cuttack tops list with 129.
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Half of Ganjam continues to remain in dark envelope. Bleaching powdcr scarcity for two days. Cuttack gasps for breath after gale blows over. Official death toll in October 17 cyclone is 197 in Ganjam. Ordeal on the National Highway. 30,000 marooned in Jagatsinghpur. Estimation of toll proving a hard task. November 11: Interior Erasama breeding death (No sign of medical teams as diseases feast on hapless villages). Trial and error pressed on patients in Balikuda block. State doctors prefer to save skin. More relief please, cries out Keonjhar. BJP-BJD relief work ends in clash.Relief materials still elude Ganjam, reports Hrusikesh Mohanty. Rs 550 crore granted by the Centre, says finance minister. 15 lakhs affected in Balasore floods. MLAs scramble to be seen with relief. World shock at Orissa apathy (International charities from London involved in Orissa estimate more than 50,000 people to have been killed). Gamang says PM playing with words. November 12: Cholera detected in Cuttack. Eight more starvation deaths. Crop worth Rs 94.5 crore damaged in Balasore. No survivor to tell cyclone horror from Sahanga (20,000 dead in Erasama). Less than 20 per cent carcasses disposed till date. State noncooperation hampering relief work. Cattle in affected
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areas vulnerable. 33.57 lakh children affected by cyclone. Flour faces post cyclone blues. November 13: Erasama surviving on leaves. Colleges suffered loss to the tune of Rs 4,684 lakh. Too many agencies in one area create confusion. Twenty arrested for looting, arson following catastrophe. Ganjam farmers suffer huge loss. Rs. 3.5 crore needed to revive Nandankanan (cyclone claims 13 mammals, 22 birds). Cyclone death toll in state rises to 9392 November 14: Supplementary budget needed. Top priority for Rabi crop and shelter. 35 villages washed away in Erasama. Contaminated waterbred skin diseases in Paradip. Cholera yes, but situation not alarming. Rs 11 crore needed to breath life into district hospitals. Medical team from Gujarat arrives in state. Why the weatherman was foxed? Puri death tolls do not tally. More deaths reported in Keonjhar, relief meagre. November 15: Relief coordination goes off track. Cholera moves stealthily sans mandatory detection. Orissa still waits to rebuild homes. November 16: No night shows the day for this village (Barely 20 km from capital, Brahrnanjherilo is
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minus kerosene, suffers in darkness). Rajendran takes oath as Governor. 101 blocks, 26 urban local bodies devastated. Inadequate polythene supply hits Balasore. Varsity in reverie, students in anguish. Cattle diseases on the rise. Cyclone blows away kewda business. Flood in Kaptipada block was man-made say villagers. November 18: Secret note: Orissa toll 25,000 (Government not yet prepared to admit huge loss of life.) November 26: Gamang is in the eye of a political storm. Twin murder over relief polythene. Blankets will be airlifted to combat cold. Damage worth Rs 350 crore to state irrigation. Polythene quality, size not upto mark. November 28: Poor quahty polythene floats up (25 samples out of 30 fail to conform with IS 2508 norms: Cipet). Dust settles in Erasama, scars not yet nursed. Monuments safe, claims ASI sans scientific tests. SRC D.N.Padhi suspended (for al1eged violation of rules on polythene procurement). Confusion mars polythene distribution. Blankets still a far cry for needy, reports Saswat Pattanayak. Epidemic fear keep beach tourists at bay.
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November 29: No bias against Padhi, says CM (Its demoralising for the entire bureaucracy, says officials). PSU relief process for affected yet to get underway. BJP demands an inquiry into scam. Confused Gamang confuses all. Action against Padhi after inquiry report. Polythene supply quizzes Jagatsinghpur. Pilferage of relief rice on a massive scale. December 1: Political storm hovers. December 2: It may be Rs 130 crore polythene scam. Congress stalemate persists (Gamang, Scindia leave for Delhi. Assembly session is deferred to December 10. Relief measures in a limbo. December 4: Giridhar Gamang makes an exit. December 5: Relief karte karte mere ko relief mil gaya, says Gamang.

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The sowrd of Damocles: II

Act I Saswat Pattanayak Ha Ha! I am alive! Resounding reassurances. Reverberating pulses of life. Joyous reminder of a time when I survived against odds But odds were not many. Instead, for me, things were not as excruciating in October 99 as it was for most. It was evident. Where there is disaster, there are committees.There are heads of the comminees. There are allocations of resources. There are co-ordinating agencies. There are supervising boards. There are weekly meetings. There are more offs at offices. There are a lot of interviews. There are more reports for submission. There are more juniors to cany out orders.There is more interaction with the political shots. There are more lights focussed on you. I was a part of the fiesta. In fact, a protagonist in my own right. They all required my-signature. Rather autograph, because of its value.
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To authenticate documents. To release materials for the affected areas. To somehow send across the message that I care for the needy and hence was going to do the needful. By signing on the papers. After all, it was all a compendium of papers. Act II They thought I would last. Even I knew I would. Its not my lifeline under cenac1e talk. Nevertheless, what worth is my life without me adorning the chair! On the chair, its all that easy. Easy to pretend. Easy to let go.Easy to have access to that junk they call satelite phone. Editorials were written on me and later, obituaries. But I knew I must go on. After all, what could my team do? We were made the scapegoat.

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All of us must be held responsible. A natural disaster took place. I was in no way instrumental. Why single me out? Act III Other side of the house has a partition facing. But as regards such a serious issue, there can be no two minds. No matter what, we felt the same pinch. It was easy to convince the Press, convene meetings to criticise the policies; but at the core of it, feelings were mutual. What could we do? This is a democracy and people have their rights intact to help each other at the time of distress. After the bad phase finally gets over, we will hold a Press-conference to talk scams. Act IV Even my own children were sick. When you cannot set things right in your house itself, aspiring to cure the needy and all is naive a statement.

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When pills were not available at a price, expecting my expertise and my samples for fiee is figment of an aberrant mind. Act V Sumos are a necessity. Even I would say helicopters too. After all, governments over the years have made the villages inaccessible. One has to reach the villages anyhow. Onus lies on us. We are paid to do that. The mission has become a profession today. So what? One has to be professional, especially when things are of this magnitude. We have helps ready for the next decade. We will overcome these criticisms one day. Till then, the Fourth Estate is our friend. Act VI We made things.

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No no, not the cyclone. The reports. About all the above ones who have confessed. About the bureaucrat, the Chief Minister, the Opposition Leaders, the Doctors, the Social workers. I dont confess. I opine, therefore I am. At times,my opinion gets shaped. By the lure of money, glamour and by the NGOs. Cyclone was one such time. Luncheons at the five-star hotels and a bit of attention. Sumos to pick me up from my residence and other arrangements. So that I would be witness to the sufferings of the people in a far-off place and the relentless work undertaken by the volunteers. When I am not opining, I am reporting the works of the volunteers. Everybody needed a little bit of publicity. I was the provider.

AUTHORS CONFESSION (the biggest lessons from the Killer Cyclone 1999) Not categorising people as bluntly as above, its safe
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to note that we as a people have failed. The cyclone was a natural disaster, no doubt. But our collective efforts to counter it fell short. Most of our individual perceptions defied the conscience. It was not a matter of Jagatsinghpur or Orissa or India. It was not about just the people who got affected. International stance toward a populace that was dying was critically poor. Globally, the assistance that came for the ones in distress was pathetically low. Prioritywise, arms and armaments still top the list when in the 21st century, starvation went on claiming lives in a country which claims to be the largest democracy in the world. Even the dead couldnot be buried owing to inaccessibility to roads at some interior places, in an age boasting of infonnation superhighways. Science has gone far ahead to calculate most accurately the missile speeds and number of times the richest person on the Earth can encircle its diameter with beer cans. But elementarily hopeless is the failure to calculate the actual number of people who died in the biggest human disaster.
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A sense of detachment has replaced our love for humanity. Instead of extending an immediate hand of co-operation towards those in distress, considerations were made on local, regional, national grounds. History has not taught us manythings. The sword of Damocles still hangs. Apprehensions rule. Lifeless spirit reigns. Survival depends upon how we think. We must rethink.

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