Guntur, October 15: It looks as if the Government’s claim that by “immediately” supplying 20 kg of rice and 5 litres of kerosene it had managed the crisis arising from the floods competently needs to be taken with a large dose of salt.
“It was only yesterday, well after the floods receded, that the so-called immediate supplies were forthcoming — and that too only for cardholders, as if they were the only ones affected by the calamity,” scoffed one Venkateswarlu of Pedda Lanka village in Kolluru mandal of the Guntur district.
While one might concede that Government did deliver on its promise — albeit late, the problem is that most families in the Pedda Lanka village, on an island in the Krishna which was completely submerged in the floods, have no utensils in which to cook anything.
“Of what use is this rice and kerosene when we do not have anything to cook it in?” asks an exasperated 70-year-old, Todeti Samrajyam.
Points out a sympathetic revenue official, requesting anonymity: “There is a solution. But my superiors seem disinclined to accept a remedy suggested by the villagers themselves.” The idea is that, as in the case of midday meals in schools, the Government should have arranged for a community kitchen in each village or for a group of villages.
Meanwhile, the absurd situation described above prevails not only in Pedda Lanka village but 16 others — all on islands — in the Kolluru mandal of Guntur district.
Besides humans, livestock too have been starving. It has been all of four days since the people returned to their villages but it was only today that fodder supplies were sent. However, the entire truckload was hastily dumped in two minutes flat. There was a mad scramble and many were left disappointed.
All of which goes to show that it takes a lot more than decisions issued from the Secretariat to manage such situations.
Painstaking on-site supervision is the need of the hour.
–Agencies–