Dasmantpur and Kashipur,  blocks in two tribal-dominated southern Orissa districts of Koraput and Rayagarah, which are now under the grip of a cholera outbreak, have turned into favourite destinations of state politicians and senior bureaucrats.

However, these VIP trips have already become a major headache for the government machineries engaged in providing treatment and other assistance for the cholera-affected.

“The arrival of such large number of political heavyweights and bureaucrats from the state capital is consuming a lot of our time,” said a local official who did not want to be quoted.

Political heavyweights who have already visited Kashipur and Dasmantpur include Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, nearly half a dozen members of his BJD-BJP cabinet, Congress heavyweight and leader of the opposition, J B Patnaik, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief, Jayadev Jena and the lone Union Minister from Orissa, Chandrasekhar Sahu besides scores of other leaders from the ruling BJD-BJP as well as different opposition parties.

Senior bureaucrats who have toured the area include Chief Secretary, A K Tripathy and health secretary Chinmoy Basu.

PCC chief Jena has indicated that the Congress may request Sonia Gandhi to visit the cholera-hit areas.
This has added to the worries of the local administration as they fear that Gandhi’s trip will lead to tours to the area by national leaders of other political parties.

Two prominent features of these VIPs’ visits to the affected areas are – a trip to the primary health centres where the patients are being treated and holding “review meetings”.

If local sources are to be believed, during one such review meeting being conducted by a senior bureaucrat from Bhubaneswar, a local official fainted. He had to be given treatment immediately.

A similar rush among politicians to visit the region was last seen a few years back when Kashipur had witnessed a series of starvation deaths among poor tribals.