Flood-hit go without cooked food

BHUBANESWAR: With flood around, can issues of food be far behind? As 1,109 villages remained cut off, the State Government on Monday tried to deliver cooked food to the marooned people in the worst affected pockets for the second consecutive day only to go on the backfoot. The decision to air-drop ‘poori alu kassa’ was put on the backburner after the authorities felt that it could lead to health hazards. The State Government had delivered ‘khichdi’ on Sunday but went on the overdrive by preparing ‘poori alu kassa’ at the Unit VIII Kalyan Mandap where the essential materials are processed for air-dropping. “At least 200 packets of ‘poori alu kassa’ were air-dropped on Monday but we have decided to switch back to ‘khichdi’ on Tuesday since the potato dish could prove  risky during the floods, while cooked rice lasts longer,” said an official. Besides, the food is cooked during early hours of the day and gets delivered at about 11 am. On Monday, the four choppers made 10 sorties and dropped 3,346 packets of food and essential items.  Special Relief Commissioner PK Mohapatra said no complaint over quality of food has been received yet but focus will be on dry food, not perishable items. At least seven different items including flattened rice, jaggery, candle, ORS and halazone tablets are being distributed as part of the relief materials. Cooked food apart, there were reports from some parts over quality of the dry ration. Even senior Congress leader Narasingh Mishra also raised the issue saying the flattened rice distributed in Balangir district was questionable. Refuting the claims, the SRC said, strict instruction has been issued to the Food and Consumer Affairs Department to take stringent action against unscrupulous traders pushing sub-standard items during the flood. Though air-dropping of essential items will continue on Tuesday too, the  Government will take a call on its continuation basing on the situation. “It is very costly and does not fully cover the population identified. So we will have to see how the situation develops,” Managing Director of Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority Bichitrananda Das said.