When on his recent visit to Ganjam district Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra embraced Collector Krishan Kumar for his excellent initiative in saving lives of lakhs of people, a few IPS officers, who also worked for more than 72 hours before the Phailin hit the Gopalpur coast, stood there silently.
Their silence was speaking volumes, pointed out an observer. They were unsung heroes as none of the seniors patted them on back for their hard work. While the district administration led by Kumar did the job very well, the police force under the leadership of DIG, Southern Range, Amitabh Thakur also performed superbly in handling the evacuation of people from the vulnerable areas. Ganjam Superintendent of Police Ashish Singh and Brahmapur SP Anirudh Singh were on their toes since October 10 after the prediction of the October 12 cyclone was made. They were ably assisted by ASPs Jugal Kishore and Pinak Mishra.
When the police evacuation team approached the people of Arjipalli on October 11, the latter tried to browbeat the cops by arguing over impact of the cyclone. Similar was the situation at Haripur and Palampeta. The people strongly resisted the move to shift them from their homes to other places on the ground of safety. But now after the calamity is over, fisherman N Satyanarayana, a resident of Arjipalli, has no words to praise the police who saved the lives of his family members. The Phailin flattened thousands of kutcha houses in the area. Vice-Chancellor of Berhampur University Prof Deepak Kumar Behera observed, “These bravehearts (police personnel) stayed in the vicinity of two km of the coast ignoring the impending Phailin.”