October 29, 1999 had ushered in a new era for Odisha.
October would be a natural calamity month. Storms would form in the Bay of
Bengal, most disappearing after showing red eyes only, but once in a while one
or two very severe cyclonic storms would blow over. Fortunately now, splendidly
accurate storm-determining systems have come up, unlike in 1999. Meteorologists
have also developed a mechanism for naming severe storms by nations in
rotation.
No wonder,
most cyclones are feminine because males are less potent anyway. The deadliest
on record, Hurricane Katrina, an Atlantic storm formed over the Bahamas on
August 23, 2005 had pounded many regions causing irreparable damage to the tune
of 108 billion US dollars then, on the coast and inland in multiple landfalls
with severest storm surges causing both ‘blow-away’ damage and flood disasters
across four days between August 28 and 31. The storm caused such floods as the
Americans had never known to even be able to devise a strategy to remain just
safe. Katrina with a peak speed of 280 km an hour is the strangest storm known
in history.
The 1999
Super Cyclone in Odisha had touched the entire civilised world so deeply that
help came rushing even from strange individuals in faraway countries. Money
came like storm surges; volunteers appeared in thousands; ideas and wisdom
along with the works poured in overload quantities. The State machinery did not
know what to do and how to do anything well. The neighbouring Andhra Pradesh
personnel appeared like messiahs to clear roads, remove debris, trace 10,000
rotting human corpses and countless cattle and livestock carcasses and consign
them to flames, while the Odisha authorities and volunteers kept gaping in utter
confusion. Chandrababu Naidu was considered a demigod.
Come 2014
and there is a wholly different picture! Cyclone Hudhud, named after an
innocent bird in the Southeast Asia, was to make landfall on the Odisha coast.
God decided to deflect it to the Andhra coast. The port city of Vizag was to
suffer the landfall on October 12. Andhra Pradesh was witless. Despite every
preparation, panic had left everything in disarray. By now, Odisha people had
become experts in storm management, evacuation, rescue operations and trauma
reduction due to constant training and exposure over the years.
Naveen
Patnaik, as if to pay back a debt, dispatched highly-trained State personnel.
The State’s Fire Service force was on the Andhra soil by the noon of October
13. The 453-strong Odia team equipped with 239 power saws, cutters, 152 power
lights, 23 combi-tools and four mobile mini mast lights, all this spread out
across the devastated locations to commence rescue and relief work like, taking
command from the leaders, more in sign language than screams. Further, 106 men
from the Odisha Disaster Response force were dispatched with power cutters,
tree fellers-pruners, concrete-steel cutters, hydra cutters and spreaders, et
cetera, to engage in high-speed clearing of blocked roads, removing huge fallen
trees, electric poles, collapsed structures after installing night floodlights
at strategic junctions.
What Andhra
did to Odisha in 1999 after days, Odisha did in return by arriving on the spot
in hours and the victims were amazed to realise that life can be back to normal
soon enough. The trauma factor was virtually dispelled. Victims in Vizag and
Srikakulam, like elsewhere, would never be able to forget Odisha rescuers ever
for what they did at incredible speed and precision. The Andhra media was
over-awed with the contribution of the Odisha team.
That Naveen
was guided by good public officials is an undeniable fact. The Special Relief
Commissioner and the ADG of Fire Services are a few of the great masterminds
who came up with ideas and plans at high speed and organised to have them
implemented without losing one moment. On inquiry over phone, Fire Services ADG
M Nageswar Rao said it was just a routine duty well-done mainly because the
personnel had their skills kept sharp by constant honing through scientific
practice. SRC Pradipta Mahapatra, a restless, high-voltage workaholic, said he
has not been able to come back to the routine regimen because he was keen that
his force return soon and narrate unique tales to learn even more. Pradipta
says he was reminded by colleagues from time to time about food and sleep being
vital to keep life during the tough hours of planning and monitoring when
nothing but saving life and property was highest on his agenda. Similarly, on
nagging only, Nageswar Rao would say, “I would only imagine we have not done
injustice to the expectations of the victims, the people and the witnessing
world around. The Chief Minister had ordered the best possible help to be
provided. Thank God, our learning has been put to good use. We are overwhelmed
by the media coverage in Andhra Pradesh. Every media house has hailed Shri
Naveen Patnaik as a hero. AP CM Chandrababu Naidu visited personally all the
cut-off locations to see what we have been doing. The officials of Andhra
confess to the fact that Odisha repaid the Andhra debt multi-fold, which is
humanity.”
Lastly, the
NGO role may be scrutinised. During the 1999 Super Cyclone, the NGOs woke up as
late as usual (communication system was not so fantastic then) and kept crazily
waiting for the money pots to fall on head. Once the dough was in hand,
activities got madly brisk. The external agencies did not care for rigid
auditing or scrutiny. Their sole objective was to save lives and rebuild
livelihood systems very fast. Big NGOs with huge money flowing went virtually
mad. They neither had the exposure-experience nor the broad heart to give away.
They created clusters of smaller NGOs (many were born of the cyclone) and
behaved as local funding agencies to show off. The founders and leaders used
the situation and the free money without tight strings to project themselves as
great saviours without ever confessing to the outside world that they were mere
social contractors to bring relief to the victims in a most ethically correct
fashion. Ordinary people, the same way as ordinary officials, did not
understand how the NGOs operated. So they saw the NGO leaders screaming of
‘doing great things’, ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’. It so happened that
the NGOs formed solidarity groups and browbeat the poorer, hungrier ones in
such a dictatorial manner that rebellions erupted and friends and followers
became bitter enemies forever. Dirty politics prevailed for quite some time,
but big talkers had managed to steal the lime light by displaying big-spend and
confounding the media. Emergency purchase of shelter sheets, dry food, bottled
water, hiring of vehicles had kickback and the mere number of ignorant hungry,
needy volunteers had to keep singing praise for the machinating leaders for a
little dole-out and in result, extremely self-centric, fraudulent NGO founders
assumed larger-than-life pictures. Some of them used the post-Super Cyclone
plank to build international careers.
Enough
documentary evidence is available to have the NGO pretenders nabbed even today.
The moot point is that no NGO, big or small, has shown good enough face in the
2014 Hudhud rescue-relief operations because big funding agencies have stopped
assistance or are suspicious of this rare tribe. It is of course true that
perfect NGOs do exist, but their number is miniscule. A nearly-confused leader
said a band of 15 volunteers is on a tour to AP with only 50 thousand rupees in
hand, just good enough for a two-day excursion without any serious work. Not a
single big NGO leader, stealing fat salary, has ever donated one month’s salary
for relief of any community in distress. The good ones, mostly impoverished,
are doing great work without being seen.
