JOIN USOdisha under CAG fire for poor relief work post-Phailin
Despite widespread appreciation of the Odisha government for its handling of cyclone Phailin in 2013, the Naveen Patnaik dispensation has failed to impress the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
In its latest report, the CAG has castigated the government for mismanagement of relief and restoration work after the state was hit by the catastrophic tropical storm.
The CAG report was recently tabled in the state Assembly’s budget session.
According to the report, there was a delay of six to nine months in providing relief to affected people.
For example, the October 2013 cyclone and the subsequent floods due to heavy rain had damaged crops in more than 5.56 lakh hectares of agricultural land. However, the affected farmers were not compensated in time because the state administration had not been able to prepare their list till April 2014.
Before Phailin made landfall at Gopalpur in southern Odisha’s Ganjam district, the state government had gone for a massive evacuation drive, shifting more than a million people residing in coastal and low lying areas to safer places. The effort was well appreciated by disaster management agencies across the globe as it had resulted in almost zero human casualty.
However, the audit agency was of the view that the government’s efforts were not enough as it could not save animals.
“Though the state government could save human life through early warning system and evacuation to safer places, more could have been done to save the livestock which is main source of livelihood of the affected population”, the report maintained.
Recommendations
The CAG has recommended that the government initiate adequate measures to strengthen the state and district level disaster management mechanism by recruiting more staff.
The government should also create a monitoring mechanism for relief and restoration operations to avoid errors and delays, it said.