Click to play videoRajkanika (Orissa): When tragedies strike, politicians come thick and fast as do their rhetoric. In Orissa, the administration is having a tough time in hosting the visiting VIPs in tornado-hit areas. At least 15 people have died in the tragedy.
The killer tornado that ripped through Rajkanika in Orissa's Kendrapara district turned 11 villages into rubble in less than five minutes and when it was over, the scenes of death and destruction were heart rending.
"We did not get any time to save ourselves. When the impact was over I found my son dead under the rubble of my house," says a resident of Rajkanika, Roshana Biwi.
Hundreds of victims are now out on the streets without food, shelter or medicines, and the help promised by the state government may have to wait. The reason is that the administration has been busy playing host to political dignitaries visiting the disaster site - starting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
"I am still the Chief Minister and it's my duty to visit the affected people, even though it's election time," the Chief Minister stated.
Even BJP leader L K Advani - who reached the affected area a few minutes after Patnaik left - said the same thing.
"It is not proper to link everything with politics. Here is a disaster and I just came to see the people and help them," he stated.
Orissa State Congress President K P Singh Deo completed the quorum.
Rajkanika is a place where natural disaster like floods and cyclones occur almost every year, but never before has any top state or national leader visited the place. However, thanks to elections this time, the disaster victims can at least expect quick help for a change.
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