By Mahtab Alam for TwoCircles.net from flood zone,
Supaul City (Supaul): In a corner of the mega relief camp Bina Kumari and Manita Kumari are reading some textbook. Even though there are 2,000 people in the camp, they are concentrating on reading ignoring the surrounding.
“We want to read,” said Bina and Manita, students of class IV and V respectively. But they don’t know why to read. They have mathematics book provided by the government in this camp, first of dozens of camps this reporter visited in the last one week in Purnia, Saharsa and Supaul.
Erected at the local B.S.S. College, the camp stands different from other camps in other aspects also.
Management is very good. Quality meals are supplied to the residents of the camp on time. The camp is neat and clean with proper arrangement of sanitation.
Most of the flood victims here are from Triveniganj subdivision in the Supaul district.
Binda Devi is feared to have lost three of her close relatives including her son-in-law and a grand child. They are missing since the flood their village on August 19. Her mentally challenged son Babban Jaiswal was also missing for 20 days. He returned to the camp on September 12.
Zakir Hussain of Bhagwanpur village in Pratapganj subdivision is here with 10 members of his family. He has lost everything including whatever he has collected for the marriage of his daughter.
Just opposed to the good management of this camp, there is another mega relief camp at a private degree college, just 200 metres away from the first camp. The camp is chaotic, mismanaged and dirty.
It is lacking in proper facilities and flood victims complain of ignorance from the authorities.
Sikander Rishidev (35) is here for four days with his family of five members. No tent and plastic sheet has been provided to him by the authorities.
Foods are of low quality as some of the victims are smelling corruption.
“Corruption is rampant here. They use five bags of grain and register 10 bags,” says Guddu Kumar of Pratappur. He is here for eight days.
There are 1,500 people in this camp but there are just two home guards in the name of security.
Next camp at an IT institute is worse than the other two. It’s more chaotic and mismanaged.
Md. Hasan Imam from Lalit Ganj is here for several days with his family of four. They have not been allotted space nor have been given any tent or sheet.
Thanks to the lack of medical facilities at the camp the family faced a tragedy some days back when Imam’s daughter gave birth to a child but he needed some medical aid and for lack of it the baby could not live more than a few hours.
The ground realities on the ground zero have raised some questions about the capability of the state government to provide relief to the victims. The government is afloat with funds and donations from within and outside the country. Besides Central government’s package of Rs 1200 crore, crores of rupees have been sent by the state governments, companies and individuls.
What is the government doing? Are they planning long-term programmes for rehabilitation and construction? Of what use will be those programmes if the survived ones are not getting proper food and medicine?