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Govt failed to distribute relief among quake victims: Sharief

SYED YASIR. Dated: 6/5/2013 9:39:59 AM

SRINAGAR, June 4: Senior Congress leader and MLA Bhaderwah Mohammad Sharief Niaz today alleged that state government has failed to provide relief and rehabilitation to the earthquake victims of Doda and other constituencies in the area.
Addressing a press conference here, the senior Congress leader said state government has not provided any relief to the earthquake victims after chief minister Omar Abdullah announced a relief of Rs 25 crores besides free ration to earthquake victims.
He alleged that some politically influential people in the area are giving wrong information to the earthquake survey teams for the personnel political interests. He also demanded distribution of relief on the pattern adopted in Leh, 2010 flood victims.
“After an extensive tour of Bhaderwah and other constituencies of earthquake areas, the people have not received any money from the government. They are facing extreme hardships after the earthquake,” he said.
Accusing government for their failure to provide relief and rehabilitation to earthquake hit victims of Baderwah, Blasa, Thatri and entire region, Niaz said, “Dozens of earthquake villages of the region are demanding shelter, free ration and sufficient compensation. But till date, government has failed to provide it,” he said.
He said that state and central governments have only announced the relief package which was not distributed yet among them. “Chief Minister has announced Rs 25 crore relief for the victims, but not a single penny was distributed among them,” he said.
The senior Congress leader also said that Central Government has announced a relief of Rs 740 crores for the victims. “There should complete transparency in the distribution of the relief. The vested interests have jumped into the distribution process to favour their people,” he said.
Niaz accused the government of only making assessments that too up to 14th May without an action. He added that the far flung areas have not been assessed so far to know the real situation of people and their miseries.
“Earthquake damaged almost 90 percent of structures- including 99 percent school building, but government officials just visit the towns and rest of the areas remain unattended,” Niaz said.
Replying to a question, Niaz said that stopping JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik was not a good decision from the authorities. “Yasin Malik always visits the affected people in any area and Malik had come to the area to distribute relief among the earthquake hit victims on humanitarian grounds, but to put restrictions on his movement was not right decision,” Niaz said.
Youth Congress President, Shahnawaz Chowdhry, who was also present in the press conference, also accused the state government for its failure in distribution of relief. He also demanded that the relief should be distributed as per 2001 census. He said that a major chunk of population have been left without any relief package and those whose houses have been completely damaged are being provided little financial relief, that was not acceptable by affected people.
“The earthquake has damaged almost 95 percent structures and government has announced a little relief for the affected people, we want a complete rehabilitation for the victims,” Chowdhry said.
Both the Congress leaders also accused the disaster management authority of failure to provide shelter to the people. “People have been forced to live in open sky from past one month and the state disaster management authority has failed to provide tents to the people,” they said.
Both the leaders demanded that free ration should be given to all the people of the area and not only to those who have been registered under 2001 census. They also demanded relief package on the pattern of Leh people were given during 2010 cloud burst.
Both the leaders appealed people to help the suffering community by collecting relief in other parts of the state. “We appeal all the parties, organizations and general public to help the affected families,” they said.