Hopes recede for survivors

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD, JAN. 31. The death toll in Friday's disastrous earthquake in Gujarat was today officially confirmed at over 25,000, even while uncleared debris lay in heaps in large parts of the worst- affected Bhuj town, district headquarter of Kutch. In Anjar, Rapar and other towns only 30 per cent debris has been cleared.

(According to PTI, with signs of life almost non-existent under the rubble, the Government virtually called off rescue operations and directed the authorities to protect the property of victims amidst reports of looting in some areas. The State Rescue Secretary, Mr. S.K. Nanda, said, ``We have virtually called off rescue operations and are concentrating on relief and rehabilitation and steps to prevent the outbreak of an epidemic.'' He said caution was, however, being adopted in clearing the rubble in view of occasional reports of finding survivors.)

A ``curfew-like'' situation prevailed in most parts of Kutch district with the Army and the Border Security Force personnel told to ``deal sternly with'' and prevent undesirable persons from looting valuables and other household property recovered from collapsed buildings and dumped at various places.

The Minister of State for Home, Mr. Haren Pandya, and the Principal Adviser to the Chief Minister, Mr. P.K. Lehri, denied a report in a section of the press that the Army had cordoned off Anjar town in view of the large-scale destruction.

Mr. Lehri claimed that the Army had not been deployed in Anjar where the relief and rescue operations were being carried out by Government agencies together with the Reliance Industries which has adopted the town.

Kandla as bad as Bhuj

For the first time after the tragedy, the State Government admitted that the Kandla-Gandhidham parts of Kutch were as badly affected as Bhuj and other towns. The casualty based on actual body count is already 758 in Gandhidham while debris was still to be cleared at least in 20 other sites.

While the death toll in other parts of the State, excluding Kutch, was placed at 1,500, half of which is the casualty in Ahmedabad city alone, in the border district it was likely to be in the region of over 24,000.

This, Mr. Lehri claimed, was based on actual body count and the information received on missing persons on the assumption that the total loss of life could be about five per cent of the six lakh population of the district.

Denying that Bhachau town had been ``completely wiped out'' as reported in a section of the press, Mr. Lehri said though the damage to property was heavy in many villages, the human casualty would not be very high in rural Kutch as most people are believed to have succeeded in rushing out of the constructed structures or were living in low-rise houses.

Mr. Lehri said the total financial loss had been estimated at about Rs. 10,000 crores - private property (Rs 6,000 crores), public property (Rs. 1,000 crores), trade and industry (Rs. 2,000 crores) and damage to utilities (Rs. 500 crores each).

Mr. Pandya said the Ahmedabad District Collector had seized the files and records of all the buildings that had collapsed and of those found unsafe to take action at a later stage. Samples of the construction material were also being collected to ascertain whether the cause of the collapse was faulty construction and inferior quality materials.

The Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, left for Bhuj by road via Radhanpur to personally supervise the rescue and relief work. Mr. Pandya said Mr. Patel would be camping in Bhuj as long as required. The Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, too, would be in Bhuj.

Second plane from Pak.

While another relief plane from Pakistan landed at the Ahmedabad airport, the second in the last two days, foreign aid has been received from 23 countries. Mr. Pandya said the Chief Minister had written to both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for an assistance of at least one billion dollars of which 70 per cent would be loan and the remaining 30 per cent grant. The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has also sanctioned a Rs. 150 crores for repair of school buildings.

Aftershocks persist

Meanwhile, most parts of the State continued to suffer aftershocks. Almost all those living under constructed structures rushed out in the open this afternoon when they felt the tremors. The meteorological department sources confirmed that out of the 10 aftershocks since midnight, the one at 3.12 p.m. was the strongest measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale. Incidentally, six of the 10 tremors today were above four on the Richter scale causing concern to the authorities.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Next     : Fernandes sticks to his figure