Several flood affected villagers are yet to cope with the trail of devastations in their locality as water is yet to recede and their woes are far from over. As a result, Diwali, the festival of light, was a low-key affair in the district with most catastrophe victims still struggling hard to wriggle out of the hardships.
Phailin, subsequent floods in rivers like Baitarnai and Brahmani, besides torrential rains due to another low pressure have created havoc in the coastal villages and broken the backbone of the villagers. Property worth crores has been lost, while crop damage has been something unprecedented. Under this backdrop, it was natural that anybody would give up celebrating Diwali in a grand way like the previous years. Especially, the residents in the river-locked flood ravaged areas of Pattamundai, Aul and Rajkanika blocks are still clamouring for relief and rehabilitation.
According to Nirmal Jena, Sarpanch of Singhagaon panchayat in the flood ravaged Pattamundai block, flood water was yet to recede from the villages. He said many villagers had not returned to their damaged houses from the makeshift polythene tents.
He informed that Pattamundai, Aul , Rajkanika and Rajnagar blocks have suffered huge crop loss. Nearly 22,644 hectares of crops in Kendrapada district have been affected as the crop fields were submerged. Around 19,229 hectares of paddy and 3,415 hectares of non-paddy crops such as vegetables, jute and sugarcane were damaged. So, during this difficult hours, how one can think of celebrating Diwali with pompIJ
And the flood affected villagers are still running from pillar to post to get relief and house damage assistance from the district administration. Most of the flood affected villagers do not have money to collect their daily grocery item, whereas the farmers are worrying about repayment of their debt, said a villager.
In Kendrapada headquarters town, celebrating Diwali festivity in remote villages means preparing many sweetmeats and bursting fire crackers. However, the residents here skipped the celebrations. Except symbolic observance, they lightened simple diyas.