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November      Last updated: Nov 20,  5:00 p.m.

Centre steps up relief operations

From Our Correspondent

EVEN two weeks after the cyclone hit coastal Orissa, the life in the affected areas is yet to return to normalcy. The incompetence of the State bureaucracy to handle rescue and relief operations has drawn a lot of flak from different quarters. The response of the State Government to the people's misery has also not gone well with the people.

The State Government did not pay heed to the warning about the intensity of the cyclone by the metereological department. It acted as if the entire administrative machinery was under seige.

The meterological department has made it clear that it had disseminated all the informations to the Chief Secretary after disruption of communication faclities. Even after 13 days of the killer storm, the State Government is not performing its role. Some states have also come forward to adopt the cyclone-hit districts of Orissa for undertaking relief and rehabilitation operations.

The Army under "operation sahayata" has so far distributed 3,500 tonnes of food and relief material, and has also cleared 1,642 km of road for traffic and is assisting in the widening of the NH-5 at Soro.

The RSS swayamsevaks true to their tradition were the first to reach the cyclone-hit areas and provide succour to the murooned. Voluntary organisation like Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti, Peoples Servants Society of India and UNICEF also contributed their bit in the relief operations.