Disaster flooded with blame-game

BHUBANESWAR: The ordeal has hardly ended, the water has not even started drying up, but politicking over bad flood management has begun in full vigour. With lakhs still marooned across 19 districts, the Government is facing a concerted attack for causing a huge disaster which, the Opposition claimed, could have been avoided.Both the BJP and the Congress on Tuesday put Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the firing line and attributed motive for allowing the Hirakud reservoir level to remain more than the actual requirement. Incidentally, Naveen holds the Water portfolio since his regime began.“The motive was to store water for the industries and the impending panchayat elections,” BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra charged. But, he claimed, the Government calculation of a limited flood misfired.For his part, Congress president Niranjan Patnaik alleged the flood was ‘man-made’. Had there been timely action by the Government, the sudden flood could have been averted, Patnaik told mediapersons.The BJP pointed out that Chhattisgarh Government did keep the Orissa Government informed about the devastating downpour upstream Mahanadi leading to heavy inflow of water into the reservoir. But the State Government was found wanting in those initial days despite repeated forecasts, Mohapatra charged. The Government utterly failed to maintain the water level. “The flood-ravaged people want to know as to why water was not released from Hirakud dam in time and who decided to keep the reservoir level at 624 feet instead of 619,” Mohapatra shot off a pointed poser to the Government.Meanwhile, the disaster is far from over. As water has begun to recede, there is apprehension of outbreak of epidemic unless preventive measures are taken within days. While western Orissa is breathing easy with no more rains in Chhattisgarh, coastal belt is still reeling and it would be days before flood water dries up completely.