M A I N   N E W S

Haryana wins Gujarati hearts
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

RAPAR(Bhuj), Feb 11 — “Is Mr Bajoria there? I am Vishnu Bhagwan, Chairman of the Haryana Public Enterprises Bureau. Our state is running relief operations in Rapar taluka. People here need groundnut oil. Please contribute as per your “shradha”... Okay, palm-oil will do. But do send it day after tomorrow.”

Mr Bajoria, Chairman of the Mumbai Solvent Extractors Association, responds positively to the telephonic SOS by the Haryana officer by agreeing to send free of cost 5000 litres of palm oil, a cooking medium used by earthquake-hit Gujaratis of Rapar taluka(equivalent to tehsil), where the people and the Haryana Government have adopted 15 villages for providing relief.

“Sir, Ram Niwas here. Please send another 1500 tents urgently. Residents of two villages met Ajay Bhai Sahib, who is here today, and urged him to extend relief operations to their villages also....No, no, we did not receive that much quantity of tents....I will give you flight-wise break up of the quantity received here. You can tally”.

The desperate Ram Niwas, Director, Industries, Haryana, gives the line to Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, MP, son of the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, who had flown in specially to supervise the relief operations launched by the state agencies, confirms the requirement of tents to Mr Sanjay Kothari, who as the Secretary, Coordination, is responsible for arranging relief material from the State.

As Mr Ajay Chautala is still talking on the phone, a group of volunteers from Charkhi Dadri in Bhiwani district reach here in a truck and inform him that they have brought about 350 tents with them. They are immediately sent to Ladrani, a remote village near the Pakistan border, which was lucky enough to be adopted by Haryana earlier in the day.

These instances only illustrate the commitment and the zeal with which the Haryana Government and its officers are running the relief operations in one of the remotest quake-devastated pocket of Bhuj district. The 15 villages adopted by Haryana are spread over 200 km. Such are the painstaking efforts of Haryana that the Gujarat Administration has virtually forgotten these villages, barring for the survey purposes.

After setting up a base camp in the Manav Sewa Ashram here, Haryana has set up eight sub-base camps, where, besides the free rations, health centres have been established. While blankets have been distributed among all affected families, many still need shelter. There is not even a single house intact in the villages. The people are afraid to sleep under the partially damaged structures. The area on an average still suffers four to six aftershocks in a day.

To sleep in open in the desert is a torture that can be appreciated only from personal experience. There is a great variation in night temperature and day temperature. It varies from over 30°C to below 5°C, with strong winds adding to the misery. The number of patients reporting sick at the medical camps set up by Haryana gives an indication of how badly a shelter is required here.

According to Dr Manoj Narula, who is manning one of the medical camps here, about 300 patients were suffering from upper respiratory tract infection due to the cold weather. Mr Chautala receives innumerable requests for tents. Haryana has decided to provide a tent to each family.

It is the policy of “one family, one tent” of Haryana which spurs the villagers to approach its authorities for help. Haryana volunteers are going to the villages and pitching tents near the fallen structures as no one wants to go out of the village in open fields.

Another novel idea floated by Haryana is to run schools near sub-centres. The Speaker of the Haryana Assembly, Mr Satbir Singh Kadian, who has been camping in the constituency of his Gujarat counterpart since February 1, said, “It was a painful experience to see children, running after vehicles distributing relief material outside the villages. In order to check begging, it was decided to keep them busy in make shift schools because no school building is intact.”

The services of the local teachers have been taken to run the schools. The Haryana IAS Officers Wives Association chipped in with copies, school bags and stationery material.

As Mr Ajay Chautala comes to Rapar after touring of the adopted villages to spend the night in a tent, he receives a call from the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, who asks him what else is required for the victims. “Don’t worry about money. About Rs 10 crore has already been contributed by people to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.”

People urge Mr Ajay Chautala to supply “bajra”, if possible, as wheat is not their staple diet. They also ask for fodder for the cattle. The area is suffering from drought for the third consecutive year. At Bela village, the last Gujarat village near the Pakistan border, villagers request him to provide jobs for them. They also presented him with a handwoven bedspread.