The cry from Kalahandi

The New Indian Express
First Published : 11 Sep 2009 11:57:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 11 Sep 2009 12:52:30 AM IST

Death has come, calling again, in the form of cholera, in Orissa’s poverty stricken Kalahandi district. With inadequate potable drinking water, medical facilities and communication network in the remote areas, people have no choice but to resign themselves to fate even as the state government is busy issuing denials about an epidemic. State health authorities claim to have contained the outbreak by rushing medical teams and supplies but their assurances are hollow in the face of repeated outbreaks. Few would have forgotten the shame of 2007 when over 100 died of cholera in Rayagada district. Every year hundreds are affected by this man-made tragedy in the KBK (Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput) region where life is cheap. The latest deaths come as an agonising replay of how the politicians and bureaucrats have failed the people of the region.


Why are thousands of people living below subsistence level, getting barely two meals a day, drinking polluted water and succumbing to frequent epidemics when crores of rupees are spent on poverty alleviation and development schemes? As the blame-game begins, the real issues are swept under the carpet until another epidemic or starvation death wakes the administration from its slumber. This callous mindset has taken the lives of many who could perhaps have been saved. When reports of starvation in Kalahandi shook the conscience of the nation in the Eighties, then PM Rajiv Gandhi initiated several special schemes for the region. In 1993 Narasimha Rao vowed to make KBK a laboratory of development and two years later launched the Long Term Action Plan for KBK with an outlay of Rs 6,251 crore.

Where have all these funds gone? Survey after survey finds KBK poorer than it was in 1980. It is not difficult to know where the money disappeared. Schemes were run on paper as money was siphoned off with connivance of corrupt politicians, officials and contractors. The poor tribals are left to survive on mango kernels and wild tubers in difficult times. The backwardness of the region ensures that the voice of the masses is stifled. Cholera in KBK is symptomatic of a deep-seated malaise. More than the epidemic it is the cancer of corruption that has eaten into the vitals of the administration. It is time the issue was addressed squarely and those at the helm of affairs were held accountable.