V Kamalakara Rao & Manish, TNN | Oct 15, 2014, 01.07AM IST
The slow pace of relief work by the authorities came in for harsh criticism from Vizagites, many of whom complained about relief not reaching them.
VISAKHAPATNAM: As if the battering by Cyclone Hudhud was not enough, the insensitive attitude of some government officials and the struggle for survival on Day 3 saw the otherwise placid Vizagites running out of patience.
Deprived of basics like water, power and food for three days in a row, the struggle of the man on the street intensified. The slow pace of relief work by the authorities came in for harsh criticism from Vizagites, many of whom complained about relief not reaching them.
"The biggest problem is water. We ran out of our stock of the corporation drinking water yesterday and each 10-litre can of water is being sold at Rs 2,500, which is ridiculous. It is appalling that in times of such crises, all some people can think of is making money. The government relief too is no where to be seen," said Sai Padma, who lives in MVP Colony.
In fact, many citizens were seen going back to the good old days when handpumps were one of the popular means of collecting water for their daily chores and long queues were witnessed at the few sites having handpumps. "I had to wait for over two hours for a bucket of water and had to shell out Rs 20 for it. I am okay with this as something is better than nothing and we desperately need water," K Raju, a resident of Peda Waltair said.
What is worse, there were reports of relief workers demanding that citizens produce Aadhaar cards for getting their quota of free rations. For instance, at Seethammadhara, the MRO staff distributing free milk and rice to the victims insisted that only if they showed their Aadhaar cards would they get the relief material, which upset people.
Amid the struggle for survival were allegations that some government officials, who were appointed to distribute milk and water to provide respite to harrowed citizens, were not doing their job properly.
In the midst of this devastation, three important public bodies — GVMC, Vuda and police commissionerate — are headless, which is also affecting the relief operations.
"I saw a man dumping a sack of water pouches near my house. But before I could lay my hands on them, two men ran out and took the sack away with them. We are dying of thirst as we have no access to drinking water and people (relief workers) do not have the common sense to distribute it properly," an agitated M Ramana said.
"Milk vans being sent to distribute free milk to citizens are only giving away a few packets free while rest are being sold in the black market at huge rates," alleged V Mahalakshmi of Peda Waltair.
As the supply of food items in the open market remained scarce, their prices continued with their northward journey, blowing a hole in the pockets of citizens.
Meanwhile, serpentine queues outside grocery stores, milk booths and petrol bunks continued to grow longer. On Tuesday too, despite assurances by the state-level coordinator for oil industry, Ch Srinivas, that there were enough stocks of fuel to last for more than 15 days, filling stations continued to ration one litre of petrol per customer, most of whom had to endure waits of more than 3-4 hours at bunks.
Perhaps the only silver lining was that some rythu bazaars finally opened their doors on Tuesday and sold vegetables at regular prices. However, rythu bazaar officials said the present situation may not continue for long as the supply of stocks was very limited due to extensive crop damage in areas like Pendurthy, Narsipatnam and Anandapuram.
"Apart from crop damage, transportation of veggies is proving to be a major hurdle due to the shortage of petrol and diesel. Only half of the farmers are able to make it to rythu bazaars to sell their stocks. Usually 250 farmers turn up on any given day but today only around 120-130 came," said a Seethammadhara rythu bazaar official.
However, in the retail markets, vegetable vendors continued to make hay by selling veggies at double and triple their normal prices.
(Inputs by Rajyashree Guha)
