Hundreds of families, who lost their homes in Sunday’s mini-tornado, are spending sleeping nights.

While they don’t have enough money to rebuild their homes, the state administration is in a fix about constructing dwelling units for them amid the model code of conduct.

“I spent my entire savings by constructing a tin-roof house barely six months ago. It was completely ravaged in the storm. How can I construct my house again when my main challenge is buying food or medicines for my family?” asked Dharmadeb Roy, a farm labourer in Sishuakhali village in Mainaguri, the block affected most in Sunday’s storm. “My only hope is the government.”

A 10-minute storm on Sunday afternoon left around 6,000 people homeless — mostly poor marginal farmers or daily labourers — by damaging at least 1,200 homes.

Now, the question uppermost on the minds of affected villagers is when they will again have their own houses.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who reached Jalpaiguri on Sunday night within seven hours of the mini-tornado, and is still in the district, blamed the Centre on Tuesday for freezing funds under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

“The Centre stopped providing funds for the housing scheme. These people (storm-hit) had their names on the list (of PMAY), but didn’t get the benefit of the scheme. If they had better houses, the extent of damage would have been less,” she said at a church in Jalpaiguri’s Chalsa, some 60km from Siliguri.

Suresh Roy of Mainaguri is one of the many PMAY beneficiaries who did not get funds under the scheme. “I was forced to build a makeshift house that was blown off on Sunday,” said Roy.

Mamata also repeated that if the Centre did not provide funds, the state would go ahead and provide funds to the 11-lakh-odd beneficiaries under the rural dwelling unit scheme.

“We will wait till May. If funds don’t come from the Centre, we will provide funds according to our announcement. Let us be clear that we, too, have to provide 40
per cent of the funds and land for the housing scheme,” said Mamata, outlining the state government’s contribution to the central housing scheme.

A senior official said that the hands of the disaster management department — that provides immediate support to victims — are tied. As the code is in force, the administration or the state government can’t build houses.

“The administration must follow the code because of Lok Sabha polls. We have informed the state government about the crisis and sought their suggestions,” said Jalpaiguri district magistrate Shama Parveen.

The homeless are spending nights in tarpaulin tents or school buildings. They are getting food from NGOs.

“If the government does not build my home, I have to live in this tent that I set up on the debris of my ravaged home,” said Bijoy Roy of Sishubari village under Barnish gram panchayat where 700 houses were damaged.