By Abdul Basith MA, TwoCircles.net,
Mananthavady [Wayanad]: The Assam relief collection during Ramadan in Kerala by youth wing of Indian Union Muslim League [IUML] – Youth League – has come under scanner, as the clothes collected by them were found kept for sale in bulk garment sale shops and godowns in Manathavady town in Wayanad district.
Already there were accusations that the clothes which Youth League sent to Assam were far below quality as most among them were torn out and unusable. A few bundles of clothes collected from Kozhikode and Malappuram by Youth League workers were said to be rejected and sent back as people there in the relief camps, found it extremely torn out.
On finding these clothes kept for sale in the Delhi Bazar godwon at Mananthavady, the locals and a few social workers besieged the entrance in protest and informed the Police. But before the Police arrived, the owners were successful in putting down the shutters and left the place. The Police haven’t initiated any actions until now against the shop owners.
It is believed that a few Karnataka based cloth merchants took the whole clothes collected and put up on an auction sale; as the ones who collected these clothes were unable to send them to the relief camps of Assam. The Karnataka based merchants found Mananthavady an ideal place to sell it out on a bulk basis and the bundles were found dumped in the town area a week back. Malayalam dailies like Thejas, published the news on finding the bundles dumped in the town telling that, ‘the clothes collected by Youth League for Assam riot victims were rejected and sent back’. The details of the amount to which the auction sale was carried out are yet to come out.
Earlier the IUML relief activities to help out Tsunami victims too ended up similarly, as widespread corruption carried out by the ‘relief workers’ got exposed before the public soon.