‘Corruption in Phailin relief work’

Relief and restoration after any major natural calamity provides fertile ground for corruption, hinted a survey on ‘relief accountability after cyclone Phailin’ in Ganjam district of Odisha.

A detailed report of this survey conducted by Youth for Social Development (YSD) and Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) was discussed during a workshop on ‘emerging issues and challenges in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction’ in Berhampur on Wednesday by the Ganjam Disaster Response Forum (GDRF).

This sample survey conducted in 35 panchayats of two coastal blocks of Ganjam district that were worst hit by Phailin cyclone in 2013 proved that non-accountability and lack of monitoring system is the root cause of corruption during natural calamities.

It was found that sarpanchs favoured their friends, relatives and political supporters during relief distribution.

These sarpanchs also influenced the revenue officials during loss assessment due to which over assessment of damage was done for houses with no damage or less damaged houses.

This survey pointed out that due to this reason in several villages like Bapalli, Subalaya, Pitulupatnam, Gahanju and Badanulianuagaon, several victims were left out during assessment of losses.

Respondents complained that at villages like Sanabiswanathpur, Panibandha and Pitulipatnam, the sarpanch and panchayat officials had collected 25 rupees from each household towards transportation cost of relief materials.

In these three villages, the revenue inspector and other officials had collected 100 or 200 rupees bribe from beneficiaries for crop loss assessment, the survey stated. There was no mechanism and opportunity for poor Phailin-devastated families to complain against corrupt officials and sarpanchs.

There was no information available for common people at any village regarding relief materials.