Lamka, November 05: Even as the elected representatives of the people are busy engaged in a tussle for power, the people of Churachandpur district are helplessly caught in a near famine like situation with their meagre harvest, bringing back the haunting memories of the devastation 'Mautam' had handed them fifty years ago.

The distressing picture came to light when the district supply officer M Ginzasuan and his team advanced to the interior for streamlining PDS and initiating FPS.

Recounting his experience, the DSO said 'The situation besieging the interior villages is nothing short of a famine.' Of the thirteen odd villages he had been to during his week long tour in Thanlon sub-division, not even a single village had claimed of having a normal harvest.

Rodents, the most talked about cause for the poor harvest, were not the only factor.

Bats, Wild Boars, insects and storm had caused widespread havoc to the jhum dependent people, he said and further quoted the villagers as saying though Boars and other animals enter the field earlier, this time the magnitude of the devastation was never seen before.

Chief of Dialkhai village, S Paukhogin is said to have informed the visiting official that two tin of crop he had sowed merely yielded the same amount.

If it were in other years he would have easily reaped a hundred tin.

Zamthuam of Thanlon failed to reap one tin of the one and a half tin he sowed.

Same is the case with Khatzathang of Sinzawl.

What is revealing in fact is the claim that these three people were the lucky ones with many of their counterparts having nothing to harvest at all.

The best harvest witnessed by the team was a man who claimed to have harvested nine and a half tin, but as he had reportedly joked to the officials � he still lack half a tin to pay the Christian tithe one tenth of the harvest.

The DSO and his team brought back samples of the rice plants attacked by bats and rats and produced them before the media.

Besides paddy, it was reported that the devastation has also adversely affected chilly and ginger fields as well.

Another alarming fact according to the DSO is the provision of covering only 40 percent of the population under BPL.

Even if PDS supplies were brought to the village in the present set-up the supply has to be shared with the remaining sixty percent, making it too little to sustain them for a month.

With the people failing to reap sufficient harvest to last them till Christmas, the once a year merriment the jhum dependent people enjoy is sure to lack the spirit, if there is any merriment at all.

To obtain the true magnitude of the devastation and get a first hand account of the suffering of the people in the interiors, Manipur Hills Journalist Union in its emergency executive meeting held later today decided to conduct an extensive week long tour of the length and breadth of the sub-divisions beginning this weekend.

The team will then confirm if the claim of Bukpi Chief of having to eat anything that fails to call them 'Pa' (dady) is overstated.

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