Puri: A drive down the Konark-Puri marine drive road is enough to make one re-imagine the devastation wreaked by cyclone Fani in this belt five years ago. Both sides of the road are littered with uprooted tree trunks and there is hardly any sign of agricultural activity in the area which bore the brunt of the gale that left behind a trail of destruction in the form of damaged houses and flattened crops in large parts of Puri district.
Yet to recover fully from the after-effects of the cyclone, perhaps the most disastrous to have hit the state after the super-cyclone of 1999, the people here nurse a grudge against the government for failing to compensate them adequately for their losses. The wounds caused by the cyclone are more visible in the rural belt compared to the urban areas like Puri town where tourism, the main source of income, is almost back to normal.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
However, things are in a bad shape in the rural belt with villagers crying for compensation. “I have been living in a house with a damaged roof for the last five years, waiting for compensation to arrive. But it has been a futile wait. Our hopes rise each time a government team arrives for survey, but the end result is invariably frustrating,” said Benudhar at Nuapatna village in the Brahmagiri area of the constituency where Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate, former Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik, is locked in a fierce duel with BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra.
Congress candidate Jay Narayan Patnaik who replaced Sucharita Mohanty, a former journalist who pulled out of the fray citing shortage of funds, is trying in vain to make the contest triangular. Already being dubbed an “also-ran” he seems to be there just to mark his presence. The real contest, thus, is between BJP and BJD who are pulling out all stops for victory.
But the task of BJD candidate Arup Patnaik, a retired IPS officer of the 1979 batch who is trying his luck in the electoral arena for the second time after losing the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Bhubaneswar by a margin of around 21,000 votes, is being made difficult by the undercurrent of resentment against the state government among Fani-hit people. “We suffered extensive damage in the gale but all that we have got in the last five years is compensation worth Rs 2,000 which is like adding insult to injury,” said Baidhar, a farmer at Chaitana.
Even fishermen at Puri’s Noliasahi are grumbling about being left to fend for themselves in the wake of the cyclone which hit Puri on May 2, 2019 with winds gusting at more than 120 miles per hour. “More than voting in these elections I am worried about my declining fish catch. We lost so much in the cyclone which damaged our houses, boats and nets but no one has compensated us for our losses,” said Mohan Rao who, though, holds chief minister Naveen Patnaik in high regard because of the welfare schemes like cheap rice and Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) health cards launched by him. “He is a good man but his party leaders are not all that good,” said Rao.
Muslims appear to favour Naveen Patnaik and his party more out of compulsion as voting for the “communal” BJP and “weak” Congress is not an option for them. Abdul Firoz, an applique craftsman at Pipili, is angry with the BJD for going with the BJP in the parliament on controversial issues like Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but would still vote for the party.
“We were pained to see Naveen Patnaik’s party siding with the BJP on CAA and scrapping of Article 370. We realised that he only maintains the pretence of being secular. But considering that we cannot vote for the BJP and exercising our franchise in favour of the Congress would be a waste of the ballot as it has no chance of winning, it is still better to opt for the BJD. The chief minister at least had the courage to dump the BJP in 2009 after the Kandhamal riots,” said Firoz.
The applique craftsmen of Pipili have their own tale of woes to narrate with a severe downturn in business and plunging profits, all thanks to the construction of Puri bypass road which runs towards the temple town skirting Pipili. “Earlier the road passed through our town which has rows of applique shops on both sides of the main road. People visiting Puri invariably got down here and made purchases but now with the construction of the bypass no Puri-bound vehicles stop here,” cribbed Abhay Mohapatra who owns one of the largest applique item shops in Pipili.
In the holy town of Puri the missing keys of the Ratna Bhandar (treasure room) of the 12th century Shree Jagannath temple remains a hot topic of discussion in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow in the town on May 20. Addressing rallies in different parts of the state following his roadshow the Prime Minister found BJD’s role in the matter suspect and promised appropriate action if his party came to power in the state. He even took a dig at chief minister’s Man Friday, the Tamil Nadu-born bureaucrat-turned-politician V.K. Pandian saying it was rumoured that the keys have gone to Tamil Nadu.
Ardent BJP supporters like Saroj Mishra have been quick to latch on to the issue and turn their ire against the BJD government, especially V.K. Pandian who was chief minister’s private secretary for 11 years before taking voluntary retirement from service.
“In April 2018, the government tried to reopen the Ratna Bhandar for a physical examination but the effort was unsuccessful as the keys were missing. The team formed for the purpose returned after inspecting whatever it could see from outside an iron grill using searchlights. The keys are still missing. It is a matter of serious concern and the Prime Minister is right in asking the BJD to come clean on the issue,” said Mishra dismissing the ruling party’s assurance about opening of the Ratna Bhandar during the upcoming Rath Yatra in Puri. The fabled treasure trove of the Puri deities, irrespective of what happens to it, is heating up the campaign which is getting shriller.
