BRAHMAPUR: Though normalcy is
limping back in cyclone affected Ganjam district, still the harrowing night of
October 12 haunts people of the district. After evening, when pitch dark paints
the sky, people feel everything is silence after the monstrous Phailin razed
the scenic land. The devastation of electric poles, transformers and power grid
left the people of the district in darkness and supplemented solitariness of
the people.
We re-visited a few villages and
towns of Ganjam to see its evenings where we had spent nights before the
cyclone. We could not see more crowd in the markets as electricity yet to be
restored in the cyclone affected areas of Ganjam district. Villages, towns and
semi-urban areas were grabbed by dark nights in the absence of electricity.
When the people were geared up
for Durga puja festival, Phailin washed away happiness and filled emptiness
with heavy loss of houses, livelihood, property, infrastructure and serenity of
nature. The cyclone destroyed the well decorated costly puja pandals along with
idols in Brahmapur which direct hit the puja business this year.
Every year Kumar Purnima, a
festival of joy for adolescent girls, has a special place in the heart of
villagers, but this year Phailin looted the festive mood. As religious Odia
month ‘Kartika’ started from Saturday, no morning hymns of village priest was
coming through the mike due to power cut.
Due to Phailin, official sources
said, power connection lost to 45,960 villages. Though the State Government has
restored many villages, over 21,000 villages are still in dark. Thousands of
electricity poles damaged and uprooted in the cyclone and the power grids
received heavy damage in the gale.
After the devastation of power
sector in the affected areas, one of the serious problem occurred for
communication is mobile phone recharge. As electricity is normally needed for
charging the mobile phone, people faced many problems. Family members living
outside the city or State are in tension as they failed to contact their kin.
Some of the electrical, electronic shops and mobile shops offer services at Rs
20 per mobile for charging the mobile battery. We saw a few shops at Brahmapur,
Ganjam town, Rambha and Khallikote during our visit to the affected district.
Published on October 23, 2013
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