The Hindu : Relief camps still waiting for basic supplies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 05, 2002

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Relief camps still waiting for basic supplies
By Anjali Mody

AHMEDABAD, MARCH 4. On the Sabarmati's west bank, in neighbourhoods such as Navrangpura and Shahibagh, life had the semblance of normality. Shops were open, people were on the streets, even autorickshaws were plying on the roads. There were large crowds around vegetable stalls and the word down the line was that potatoes were Rs. 30 a kg.

But, at least there were potatoes to be had. The several thousand people crowded into relief camps around the city are still waiting for basic supplies. And getting supplies to them is not easy, especially since the administration refuses to help.

According to NGOs, there are 17 camps in the city, accommodating between 35,000 and 40,000 people who escaped the carnage. Almost all are short of basic supplies and but for a couple, they are all on the wrong side of the river, where even tonight a curfew is in place.

The major problem, according to Farther Francis Parmar, Principal of St. Xavier's college, is not the shortage of goods but of transport. Truck owners and drivers are unwilling to transport the goods without police escort. They fear being attacked, as many were, not so many days ago.

The police are unwilling to help. The Citizens' Initiative, a coalition of seven Ahmedabad NGOs, approached the police for help. The Police Commissioner, P.C. Pandey, refused to meet them. The Additional Commissioner (Special Branch), Pramod Kumar, did see them, but refused them an escort. The curfew was relaxed, he said, and there was no need for an escort. Besides, he could not spare any of his men.

Mr. Kumar added that other trucks were on the road. The fact is that even State transport buses are not plying and transporters are unwilling to venture out when the State considers it unsafe to do so.

But the determination of one young woman from the Shah Alam area has spread some hope. Meena (not her real name) managed to get an escort for a small truck and travelled from the old city across the Sabarmati to pick up a supply of rice, milk powder, cooking oil and medicines. The escort _ a single armed policeman _ was provided by the Joint Commissioner of Police, M.K. Tandon, after repeated pleas from Meena, who had first called, asking for an escort to take some people to hospital.

The truck took a pre-agreed route, skirting the city to avoid any ``difficult spots''. After it crossed the Sardar bridge and travelled through the shattered neighbourhoods of Dhanilimdi and Jamalpur, it was stopped six times before it reached its destination, the Shah Alam dargah. And this despite the presence of the armed policeman.

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