JAGATSINGHPUR: The fury of floods has added to the misery of people in Jagatsinghpur district, amidst an already damaging pandemic. The situation is grim for residents of inundated villages under Tirtol and Kujang blocks as they await evacuation. Some of them have taken refuge on rooftops.
While the villages have been inundated by rising water levels of the Mahanadi since last three days, neither the administration nor elected representatives have turned up in these interior pockets. Acute shortage of boats for rescue operations have reportedly made the situation worse. Locals are also faced with the dilemma of shifting to overcrowded cyclone shelters where the risk of Covid-19 is higher.
At least 24 villages under Kujang block and five under Tirtol are heavily waterlogged. In Zillanasi panchayat under Kujang block, the flood situation has affected nearly 8,000 villagers. Sources said that while people are dreading getting infected in the cyclone shelters which are likely to be congested, they have no other option as their houses remain submerged and the risk of snakes in flood water is high.
Admitting that the situation is serious, Zillanasi sarpanch Pramod Kumar Swain shared that efforts are on to evacuate 50 per cent of the worst affected people to the flood shelters at Zillanasi and Saharadia in the same panchayat. “With limited boats and non-availability of adequate space in shelter homes, schools will also be used for evacuees,” he said.
Other affected locals including former Zillanasi sarpanch Tapan Kumar Samantray, Chittaranjan Behera, Sanjib Mohapatra, Debasish Das and Ramesh Behera expressed their resentment as no local MLA or officials from the administration have made an appearance till now to take stock of the situation. “It has been three days since the villages have been submerged but people are yet to receive help. The administration distributed cattle fodder after three days but people are still deprived,” they claimed.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Collector Sangram Keshari Mohapatra visited Haripur, Manijanga, Gopiakuda and some other villages in the two blocks and supervised distribution of masks, cattle fodder, dry food and other relief materials to evacuated families.