BHUBANESWAR: Sixty two-year-old Harjeet Kaur Anand has been waking up at 4 am since Cyclone Fani paralysed the Smart City. For her, it isn’t a tall order. Feeding hundreds of Fani-struck people in Bhubaneswar and Puri is her concern. Blurring lines of communal separations, she has joined the noble cause of providing cooked meals or ‘langar’ to the Fani victims along with other Sikhs of the City.
They have been providing ‘langar’ at Bhubaneswar Gurudwara twice a day from May 4. Previously, ‘langar’ was served only on Sundays. Members of 50 to 70 Sikh families in Bhubaneswar and volunteers of an International voluntary organisation, Khalsa Aid, work in shifts at the Gurudwara to cook meals, serve food to people in the Capital and Puri.
Around 100 kg each of dal and rice are cooked at Bhubaneswar Gurudwara for the affected people of the two cities. Eight volunteers of Khalsa Aid have been taking meals to the people in Puri from Monday. They will soon serve meals at Gop and Konark too. Secretary of Bhubaneswar Gurudwara, Satpal Singh, went to Puri on Tuesday to take a stock of the distribution.
While women and elderly prepare meals, youngsters distribute it among people standing in a queue outside the Gurudwara during lunch and dinner time. The preparations begin from 7 am. “Nothing was planned. The day, after Fani, we rushed to the Gurudwara to help people. We did not want the people to starve. In fact, we will continue to serve people until everything returns to normal. It could take a week’s time, a month or whole year. We are ready for it,”said Gangandeep, a resident of Rasulgarh area.
Volunteers of Khalsa Aid had come to Odisha from other cities like Kolkata and Delhi. Members of Gurudwara claimed teams from Punjab might also turn up for helping them. Each family comes foreword to donate the supplies for ‘langar.’ “People in Puri don’t have utensils. I was moved to tears when a man came to us with a polythene sheet,” a volunteer in Puri said.
People run for cash
Jeypore: Cyclone Fani may have spared Koraput but its repercussions are being felt by the people across the district. Disruption in telecommunication services has hit banking transactions, leaving the people penniless. With BSNL, the major service provider, down, Internet connectivity has become a major challenge. Most of the ATMs across the district are running dry, while banking service in Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda and Kotpad areas are yet to get linked with Internet as a result customers are finding it tough to get their works done. People are struggling to get cash for the past three days. Sources said local networks are unable to link with the main server in Bhubaneswar.
Insufficient cash reserve in SBI main branches has led to shortage of cash in ATMs and things can be streamlined only after banks in Bhubaneswar re-start regular work. In the absence of cash, people are facing difficulties in purchasing essential commodities. On the other hand, prices of vegetable have gone through the roof. Tomato is priced at `50 per kg while the potato is selling for `25 per kg.
Market sources said transporters of neighbouring districts and Andhra Pradesh have stopped plying their vehicles under the impact of the cyclone resulting in low supply of essential commodities. Taking advantage of the situation are the wholesalers, who are resorting to hoarding and jacking up prices. Fani has also impacted Government work with local offices unable to connect with their headquarters in Bhubaneswar for daily activities.