The Right to Food Campaign, a civil society group working on food security issues in the State, demanded that State Government increase the compensation amount under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to the Phailin-affected people in three districts, Ganjam, Puri and Baleswar, for ensuring their livelihoods.

The campaign which has sent three fact-finding teams to these three districts, submitted a memorandum with a set of suggestions to the Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Surjya Narayan Patro and demanded his immediate intervention for taking  measures in order to provide due compensation to the affected  people  and livelihood support to the vulnerable families.

The memorandum stated that the team during its visit came across a lot of issues like sand casting of hundreds of acres of land due to course of Rushikulya river of Ganjam, Budhabalang and Subarnarekha river of Baleswar district, miserable condition of vulnerable households like disable headed family, single woman headed family, landless people, crop loss of thousands of acres of land, destruction of school building, Anganwadi centres, fishing boats and nets.

The memorandum further stated that the Government has neither provided any compensation nor undertaken livelihood supports to the affected people in these three districts.

The report too highlighted that the compensation package under SDRF was not enough to provide due compensation to the affected people and suggested the Government to increase the compensation amount to meet the expenditure for de-silting of land.

 The team further demanded proper compensation to Kewda cultivatiors and distillery units which were destroyed due to Phailin as it is one of the major sources of livelihood of the people of Ganjam, Chhatrapur, Rangeilunda blocks of Ganjam district. Hence, it is recommended to the Government to make proper assessment of the loss of  Kewda trees and distillation units and provide them due compensation for its restoration.