Pune: Despite government and political leaders claiming that all kinds of help and compensation will be given at the earliest, cyclone-affected families in Kokan region are yet t receive help due to administrative delays.
According to reports, compensation to families was first delayed on account of apathy shown by government officials. Further time was wasted in gathering employees to conduct the 'record of witness testimony' (panchnama) process, later banks insisted that the witness testimony records should be submitted in English instead of Marathi language.
The Revenue Department had formed a special squad of around 240 employees comprising of the talathi, gramsevak, agricultural assistants and teachers to oversee the process of delivering compensation.
This squad has so far finished 25 thousand panchnamas including 22,286 houses, 246 shops, 580 public properties, etc. The agricultural department has conducted panchnama of over 2.30 lakh hectares of the land area of 8,329 farmers.
But all of this information was recorded in Marathi by the squad and submitted to banks. However, citing technical problems, the banks requested officials to re-submit this information in the English language. Translation of these 25 thousand documents took many days. Resultantly, 30 per cent of the families affected by the cyclone hasn't received any compensation from the government.
Not only compensation, but the cyclone-affected regions are facing other problems too. Frequent power supply interruptions and poor mobile connectivity have made their lives miserable.
In an attempt to help the people, the administration is using electric generators to ensure that the water supply pumps are operating at 34 locations in the region. Even during the monsoon season, the administration has ordered a supply of water through 34 water tankers.
Considering the situation, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) has also suffered a lot of damage to its infrastructure. A total of 1167 electricity poles were damaged by the cyclone. The MSEDCL called engineers and contractors from Kolhapur, Ichalkaranji, Sangli and Solapur to restore the power supply at the earliest.
Despite public participation in restoring the electric poles, the MSEDCL has failed to complete the wiring work on 1200 poles. Kelshi, Mandivali, Douli, Vanzloli, Sukondi, Anjarle, Tondli, Kharavate villages are still in the dark.
