30 OUTLOOK 29 July 2019
Balugaon instead. We are at our wit’s
end and don’t know what to do next.”
Asked why they have not applied for
compensation at the fisheries office in
Balugaon, he says, “At a time when we
are finding it difficult to get two square
meals a day, where do we get the money
to travel to Balugaon?”
A little enquiry reveals that none of the
villagers, almost all of them ill iterates or
semi-literates, had licences for their
boats or insured their fishing equipment,
which is costing them dear now. Almost
everyone in the village says 50 kg rice,
Rs 2,000 and a polythene sheet they got
immediately after the cyclone is all they
have received by way of government
help so far. “People in nearby villages
have alr eady got compensation for their
damaged boats. But the government has
forgotten us, maybe because we are
Harijans,” rues Nayak.A
JAY Kumar Bhoi, a Hindi teacher
in the local school and a social
worker, says there have been seri-
ous discrepancies in the survey
conducted by the government to assess
the damage to houses caused by Fani.
“Houses completely ruined have been
shown as ‘partially damaged’,” he tells
Outlook, pointing to Artatrana Bhoi’s
house as proof. Artatrana nods in affir-
mation. For the record, those who had
their houses ‘fully damaged’ are enti-
tled to a compensation of Rs 95,000,
while those left with ‘partially damaged’
houses would get Rs 45,000. But that is
in the distant future. Most beneficiar-
ies have received just Rs 3,200 as the
first instalment so far.Except for around seven families,
including Golam Mohammed’s, most
people in the village don’t have pattas
for their homestead land. And none of
them has heard of the ‘Vasundhara’
scheme under which the government is
duty-bound to provide four decimals of
homestead land to every landless
family in the state. Sanjulata Bhoi, a
widow, says in the absence of a patta,
she can’t get a caste certificate, which
would have allowed her to admit her
teenaged daughter in the local school.
Some people received the first instal-ment of Rs 20,000 under the erstwhile
Indira Awas Yojana in 2016, but noth-
ing since then. “After paying the
manda tory Rs 5,000 PC (percentage
commission, a bribe) to the sarpanch,
we were left with just Rs 15,000. Instead
of giving us the next instalment, offici-
als are asking us why we haven’t built
our houses,” says a visibly angry Nayak.
It is understandable that houses
damaged by the cyclone would take
time to rebuild. But here people have to
sleep on an empty stomach well over
two months after Fani. OGenerosity of the Cyclone-Hit
Why Venkat Das of Siruli won’t leave Bhoisahi village
MAKE-
SHIFT
Venkat Das’s
family at
their new
addressT
HOSE who live in misery are perh aps
more empathetic and ready to help
out others like them in a similar
condition. P. Venkat Das, a resident of
Siruli village under Kanhei Bidyadharpur
panchayat, would certainly vouch for it.
The 40-year-old, who had to keep shifting
bases after his house was ruined by the
cyclone, finally found shelter in Bhoisahi,
thanks to the generosity of the villagers,
who allowed him to build a makeshift
house with bamboo and polythene sheet
to live with his seven-member family.
“After the cyclone, I first went to the
cyclone shelter in Khajuria,” says Venkat.
“But I was turned away by the dominant-
caste people who had taken shelter
there. I kept shifting from one shelter to
anot her—Ghatakoli, Manapada and
Golara—bef ore ending up at the shelter
in Satapada. But a group of people used
the shelter for drinking in the evenings.With a young daughter and daughter-in-
law, there was no way I could stay there.
So, I shifted to this village. The people
here have been very kind and generous to
me. I can never thank them enough for
their help.”
Venkat, who has an Aadhaar number but
no BPL card (and thus no subsidised
grains), earns a living by doing sundry
jobs—cleaning fishing nets or working as
a labourer in earthwork. His son Kamesh
(21) and daughter-in-law Parvati (who has
a two-year-old daughter) also work to
supplement the family income.
But why doesn’t he have a BPL card?
“They are saying my Aadhaar card won’t
do as it was issued in Ganjam district, my
native place,” says Venkat. “The villagers
have looked after us as my parents would
have done. I am overwhelmed with their
kindness and have no intention of shifting
out of here.” OPOST-CYCLONE