Farmers in the Gaja-affected district of Thiruvarur are confused whether to clear the piles of trees felled by the cyclone or wait for the elusive Village Administrative Officers (VAOs) to carry out the survey to assess the extent of damage to their crops.

Shortage of VAOs, whose recommendation is critical for farmers to get compensation from the government, is making the wait indefinite.

People’s anger

People in the three affected districts of Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Thanjavur are seething over the slow pace of rehabilitation and disbursement of compensation. The delay in the survey aggravates the situation and could be bad news for the AIADMK government facing the Thiruvarur by-election on January 28.

For the Opposition DMK, Thiruvarur is a prestigious seat as it was held by M Karunanidhi, whose death led to the by-election. The party could exploit the delay in rehabilitation and compensation to garner public support, sources said.

Government officials agreed that there is shortage of VAOs but claimed that it not affecting the pace of survey. Over 12 lakh trees, including coconut (major cash crop in the delta region), mango and casuarina, were felled by the cyclone that crossed between Nagapattinam and Vedaranyam on December 16, with wind gust of over 180 kmph, creating havoc in the three districts.

Shortage of VAOs

Each village is supposed to have a VAO, who has the power to shortlist eligible members for any government scheme and to initiate construction of any new building, if required.

Thiruvarur, along with neighbouring Pattukottai, was the worst-affected by the cyclone and needs to have 104 VAOs but has only around 70, said NR Rengarajan, a former MLA from Pattukottai. It takes nearly ten days to survey a village. Farmers want the VAOs to see the extent of damage before clearing the debris and the wait is worrying as the land needs to be cleared for re-plantation, he said.

K Ravi, a coconut farmer in Pattukottai agrees with Rengarajan that there is delay in undertaking the survey. He lost over 1,000 coconut trees.

Thanjavur District Collector A Annadurai told BusinessLine that there are a few vacancies for VAOs in the district but refuted that there was delay in undertaking the survey. VAOs from neighbouring regions are being engaged for the survey, which is going on smoothly, he said. Sources in Nagapattinam District Collector’s office said that survey work had slowed due to the recent strike by VAOs (demanding better facilities) but work is going on at a fast pace now.

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