As Sunderbans head for polls, post-Amphan corruption taint haunts TMC

Madhusudan Mondol, 54, has been busy over the past few days, repairing the thatched roof of his hut with some fresh paddy straw. His hut in Satjelia, an island in the Sunderbans delta of West Bengal, was badly damaged in May last year when cyclone Amphan had ravaged the Sunderbans.

“This is the first paddy harvest we have got after the storm. The monsoon season is coming and I need to repair my house. The mud wall had also collapsed and has been long repaired,” said Mondol, lamenting that the government-mandated compensation never reached him. “I didn’t get a single penny,” he said.

It was on May 20 last year that cyclone Amphan had barrelled through six districts of south Bengal leaving 98 dead and a trail of destruction. The islands on the Sunderbans that are spread across two districts North 24 Parganas and South 25 Parganas and the coastal district of East Midnapore were the worst hit.

But Mondol is not the only one to have raised such allegations. Many, in the districts, ravaged by the storm, echoed his stand pointing their fingers at the Trinamool Congress-led government.

“I didn’t get a single penny even though my house was damaged, I lost two goats and a few hens and my crops were also gone. But I have heard that many in the locality, who were close to the ruling party received the compensation,” said Joydeb Khatua, a resident of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas.

The cyclone had destroyed around 10.5 lakh hectares of cropland and around nine lakh cattle and poultry birds were killed.

It was a huge blow for the Sunderbans as the area had already been signed by the effects of climate change including rising salinity, frequent floods and cyclones and man-tiger conflict. The delta has witnessed large scale human migration to the cities over the past 10 years after cyclone Aila had hit the villages rendering the croplands infertile for the next few years.

Almost a year has passed after the storm and now four assembly seats in the Sunderbans - Gosaba, Patharpratima, Kakdwip and Sagar – would be going to election in the second phase of the eight-phase elections. The remaining nine will go to polls in the third and fifth phases.

“These areas are all TMC strongholds. Even though the BJP made impressive gains in other parts of the state in 2019 including north Bengal and the tribal belts of Jangalmahal, it had failed to make any inroads here. But the situations seemed to have changed after Amphan and its aftermath when there were large-scale allegations of corruption against the ruling party. There is anger among the people,” said a former official of the Sundarbans Development Board.

The Mamata Banerjee-administration had estimated that the cyclone inflicted damage worth roughly ₹1.02 lakh crore – with the largest chunk of losses due to the destruction of 2.8 million houses. The state government had announced a package of ₹6,250 crore, over and above the ₹1,000 crore package each announced by the state government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he made an aerial survey of the devastated area.

Banerjee had announced that ₹20,000 would be transferred to the bank accounts of each of the five lakh families affected by the cyclone and even assured an additional ₹28,000 to each family under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MNREGS).

“But where did the money go? I can take you to a dozen families who never got any compensation like me. But there are people who got the money for just being close to the ruling party despite their houses suffering hardly any damage,” said Sanjib Maity, a resident of Mahisadal in East Midnapore, another constituency that goes into polls along with 30 others on Thursday.

Days after the relief operations started, large scale allegations surfaced from across several districts that the compensation never reached the actual victims but went mostly to people who suffered no loss during the cyclone and were close to the ruling party.

Clashes broke out at the block and district level, as it surfaced that local leaders of the TMC were benefited the most. In some areas women were at the forefront of the protests.

With less than a year left for the assembly elections at that time, Banerjee had to intervene. While on one hand she punished a few block-level TMC leaders by either removing them or issuing them show cause notices, many were forced to return the money.

While on one hand the TMC supremo alleged that the matter was being blown out of proportion on the other hand she accepted that there were some mistakes in the distribution of relief.

“The chief minister has already said that there were some mistakes at the lower level, which were rectified and the guilty were punished. The CM had also formed an all-party committee to oversee the relief operations,” said Tapas Roy, a TMC spokesperson.

“The CM had said on multiple occasions that there were some mistakes and the money went into wrong accounts by mistake. I wonder why it always went into TMC accounts by mistake and not a penny reached any BJP supporter’s account by mistake. As for the committee, it was just eyewash. The committee never met,” said Dilip Ghosh, state BJP president.

The most glaring example was in Garalgacha gram panchayat in Hooghly district, where the village head, Manoj Singh, was removed after it was found that he listed his own phone number against more than 100 beneficiaries’ names, out of a total list of 166. His wife’s name was also on the list.

The matter even went up to the High Court after a PIL was filed and a CAG audit was ordered into the relief operations. The TMC had opposed it.

The BJP, which has set a target to win more than 200 of the 294 seats in the assembly, was however not in a mood to let go of the opportunity as the corruption had directly impacted the people in the Sunderbans and coastal areas where the party is yet to win any seat. The Sunderbans have a population of more than 4.5 million.

The alleged Amphan-corruption helped the party to sharpen its attack while making cut-money, syndicate and corruption the main poll planks against the ruling TMC.

Top BJP leaders including Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath have already campaigned in various areas and islands in the Sunderbans including Gosaba and Kakdwip. Words like ‘Chal chor’ (paddy thief) and Tirpal chor (tarpaulin thief) were coined to attack the TMC on allegations of corruption during the relief operations.

“Modiji had sent thousands of crores for Amphan relief. Did you see any of it? ‘Bhatija’ (Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee) and his associates siphoned off the funds without any of it coming to you. But you don’t worry. Once we come to power, we will form an SIT and probe all the discrepancies of these funds. None will be spared,” Shah had said in a public meeting at Gosaba on March 23.

But as Mamata Banerjee has already said in her public rallies, the TMC too is not letting the BJP an inch without a battle. On Tuesday, on the last day of the campaign before the Sunderbans go into polls on Thursday, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee who also happens to be the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee held four rallies in four constituencies.

“It was an issue at one point but not anymore. The government had taken action whenever such allegations surfaced and the guilty were punished by Mamata Banerjee. Some people are yet to receive the compensation but those are not because of corruption but because there were some errors in the documents they had submitted such as bank account numbers. People are on our side and the BJP won’t be able to find any ground by raising such allegations,” said Debes Mondol, TMC candidate from Hingalganj in North 24 Parganas, which goes into polls in the fifth phase.

With elections round the corner, the hapless villagers are now looking forward to the new government as promises galore in the manifestos of both the TMC and the BJP.

While the BJP has promised to pump in ₹6500 crore in the cyclone affected areas, there are also promises to come up with an AIIMs-like hospital and develop the tourist circuit. The TMC on the other hand has promised to provide financial assistance to widows beyond 18 years. This comes as good news for thousands of women who have lost their husbands in tiger attacks in the Sunderbans over the years.

“We have to remember that even though the BJP is relying on the anger of the people and the anti-incumbency factor against the ruling party it still lacks the ground level infrastructure. On the other hand even though the TMC is on the backfoot with corruption of allegation and nepotism, it has its men on the ground and a solid base. So it would be a tough fight in the Sunderbans,” said Amal Mukhopadhyay, political commentator.