Kendrapara: Shantilata Mallick, a 60-year-old widow of Kolatira village in Palasingha GP of Kendrapara block, is worried. She has not slept for a week as she has failed to communicate with her son, daughter-in-law and grandson in the flood-hit Ernakulam area of Kerala.
Shantilata Mallick said her son Niranjan Mallick, 33, was working in a plywood company in Ernakulam district. He was staying with his wife Anita, and 7-year-old son, Chandan. But after the flood she has failed to communicate with them.
“I have failed to contact my son and his family. I am now worried about their lives,” said Shantilata. Shantilata has urged the Collector and the government to bring back her son and his family from Kerala.
Fellow villager Janakar Mallick is also a worried man and is waiting for his 20-year-old son, Gulsan Mallick’s return from Kerala.
“I talked to my son two days back on the phone. My son was stranded with others from our village. My son told me the plywood unit that he worked was marooned. However, they are safe. But drinking water problem is acute. Now my son’s mobile is off and I failed to contact him. I am now worried,” said Janakar Mallick.
According to Ajit Kumar Mohapatra, the sarpanch of Palasingha gram panchayat, 27 people including 23 from Kolatira and two each from Mirjapur and Palasingha villages, were stranded in Kerala. Some of them were rescued and shifted to a safer place by the ODRAF team of Odisha.
Meanwhile, a dozen youths from his Palasingha panchayat are scheduled to return to Odisha on a special train while others are waiting for trains. Ajit has requested the Collector and the district labour department to take steps for the return of his people from his panchayat from Kerala.
Similarly, Minati Malla, 27, of Bagapatia village in Rajnagar block appealed to the district administration to bring back her husband Hemant Malla from Kerala.
Around 74 labourers from Satabhaya panchayat are stranded in Ernakulam district. The families of these labourers know little about their whereabouts. They have urged the Collector to bring back their kin from Kerala.
While some of the stranded workers have managed to communicate with their families, the whereabouts of others are yet to be known. The district labour office has been asked to keep in touch with the families of the stranded workers, said Collector Dasarathi Satapathy.
The district administration received reports of people from the district stranded in Kerala. To ensure the safety and safe return of the migrants from Kerala the administration has taken up the matter with the special relief commissioner of Odisha and steps are afoot to bring them back.
PNN
