Congress says Biparjoy losses as high as Rs 1OK cr, govt hiding deaths

The effects of Cyclone Biparjoy were more severe along the coastal regions of Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat. “Farmers who had mango trees, date palms and banana crops have suffered a huge damage in the villages of Kutch. No survey has been conducted by the government about the losses to horticulture crops. No cash-doles have been paid. The farmers are worried about how they will remove the plant debris from their farms,” Solanki added.

Solanki also claimed that people in Mandva village of Kutch complained to the visiting Congress delegation that the BJP leaders refused to help them with regard to relief as they do not vote for the saffron party.

In the three villages of Patan and Banaskantha in North Gujarat that a separate team of Congress leaders visited, they found that the state government has hid human and animal deaths that happened due to the cyclone, former Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Jagdish Thakor said.

“Till date, not a single rupee has been paid in cash doles in these villages. No compensation has been given for the cattle deaths or for houses that have been destroyed in the cyclone or for farmland that got washed away in the floodwaters caused by heavy rain. The government says no human deaths have happened (in the cyclone). But in the three villages we visited, 220 animals had died and farmlands of 1,850 farmers were washed away. An additional 458 farmers suffered crop damages, drip irrigation systems in 900 farms were washed away in flood waters, 70 shops incurred losses… The government has been hiding death figures. In Vichiwadi villages, a Rajput youth drowned, but the government did not record his death (as that was caused by the cyclone),” Thakor said.

Other Congress leaders who visited the villages of Jamnagar and Devbhoomi Dwarka districts said they found that a number of fishermen boats were damaged and no compensation was paid by the state government.

The Gujarat government has stated that state discoms suffered a loss of Rs 1,013 crore due to the cyclone damaging the electricity network in the state.