Tornado relief delay sparks protests

Subhro Maitra & Prithvijit Mitra | TNN



Karandighi (North Dinajpur): The simmering discontent over relief distribution in the storm-struck areas flared up into violent protests. Thousands of tornado victims took to the street on Friday, demanding quick and better relief in the five affected blocks of North Dinajpur.
They blocked roads and laid a siege around the BDO office at Hemtabad and blocked the state highway between Raiganj
and Kaliaganj, demanding relief and restoration of power supply. All this happened a day before the visit of governor M K Narayanan to the tornado-hit areas. Kaliaganj BDO Soumalya Ghosh held an all-party meeting in the morning to lift the road blockade. It was attended by IC Swapan Dasgupta. A huge police force had to be posted at the Karandighi block office to keep off angry protesters who threatened to assault BDO Anandashankar Ray. It was alleged that relief material was not being distributed properly and the local administration was making no effort to speed up the process.
The district administration had claimed that 14,000 tarpaulins have been allotted for Karandighi, 9000 for Hemtabad and 6000 for Raiganj.
Residents of Karandighi alleged that while the block needed 26,000 tarpaulins, just 600 had actually arrived. “The administration is lying. A visit to any of the affected villages will make it clear that almost no material has been distributed,” said Raju Ray, a resident of Karandighi.
The North Dinajpur administration admitted that the distribution process has been hit by anomalies in the list of victims. “Hundreds of names have appeared twice on the list which has led to confusion. We are trying to verify the list and make sure that the real victims get assistance,” said P K Dutta, additional DM.
But the storm victims were not ready to listen to excuses. They erupted in anger across Hemtabad, Raiganj and Karandighi. At Hemtabad block, agitation started around 10 am at the BDO Office More. At Haat Kaliaganj in Hemtabad, there was a similar agitation at the panchayat office. The victims there alleged that the relief material were distributed among the supporters of a particular party. The agitation went on till late into the evening.
At Baghanbattali under Bhandarpur panchayat, people blocked the road. Dalkhola, too, witnessed similar protests.
Around 25 tarpaulins were looted by a mob at Bazargaon at Karandighi before the police moved in and drove away the crowd. The administration arranged for 9000 more tarpaulins for Karandighi in addition to the 14,000 that reached on Thursday.
Sheikh Shamsul Haque,a panchayat member at Karandighi alleged that the number of tarpaulins that had arrived was still insufficient. A claim which was reiterated by Congress MP Dipa Das Munshi....published in TOI on 17.04.2010