తుఫాన్ ను సమర్ధవంతంగా ఎదుర్కొన్న ఓడిసా ప్రభుత్వం -విశాఖ వాసి,ప్రభుత్వ మాజీ అధికారి. GUEST COLUMN - Lessons learnt? By Amit Dasgupta. (The author is a former Indian diplomat living in Visakhapatnam). Hyderabads persistent step-motherly treatment of Visakhapatnam reduced the once quiet, picturesque coastal town into a virtual urban disaster. For local administrators, Hyderabads neglect demonstrated Vizags irrelevance. Their attitude was reflected in the near-legendary apathy and indifference to the plight of the city and the repeated pleas of concerned citizens. With the division of the state, there was genuine optimism that Vizag, freed of the stranglehold of Hyderabad, could realize its true potential and possibly even emerge as one of the great international cities. Then Hudhud happened and in one stroke it ex posed the utter disregard and tech nical incompetence with which the local administration had carried out various infrastructural projects. Today, the massive destruction the cyclone caused enables the vi sion of a reborn city, with plan ning at the heart of its designed blueprint. But, as the city limps back to normalcy, it is necessary to have a credible assessment of what went wrong and why the civil adminis tration abysmally failed. Unfavourable comparisons with the speed and efficiency with which the Odisha government and ad ministration responded at the time of Cyclone Phailin are inevitable. A `lessons learnt assessment is, therefore, vitally important so that the city, the citizens and the ad ministration can cope better the next time around. At one level, there have been visible structural failures through design defects, lack of town plan ning, illegal construction and wan ton environmental destruction. At th Kumar another level, as report after re port has indicated, the city was simply not prepared for the feroc ity of Hudhud despite an accurate technical forecast by the meteorological department. This was squarely a failure of the civil administration, whose responsibility it was to clearly inform the local population of the impending disaster and to assist and advise them on safety and other issues. Is it not the responsibility of the civic administration to protect the lives, livelihood and property of the local population it is meant to serve? At a third level, good intentions need to be backed by efficient delivery systems. It was a commendable public relations initiative of the government to d I s t r I b u t e f r e e fo o d , m I l k a n d drinking water to residents. However, the disorganized manner in which it was done resulted in some localities being denied this governmental largesse and they naturally protested that it was unfair.While such denial was clearly not intentional on the part of the local administration, it is reflective of its poor organizational capabilities. The perception is that the civil administration created the crisis in the first place by not heeding the repeated advice of the civil society. Thereafter, the civil administration was unable to contain the crisis. It was an administrative and management failure. I realise the civil administration is beleaguered and harassed, but perceptions matter. If the perception gains ground that it is Hyderabad and the civil administration that has let them down, all confidence in the competence of the administration would be irrevocably lost. There is a very real possibility of this happening. (The author is a former Indian diplomat living in Visakhapatnam). epaperbeta.timesofindia/Article.aspx?eid=31809&articlexml=GUEST-COLUMN-Lessons-learnt-19102014002071
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 09:09:38 +0000
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