Free fuel for foreign airlines with relief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 1. The Ministry of Civil Aviation today decided to give free fuel to foreign airplanes carrying relief material and personnel for earthquake victims. It will also give single- window clearance to foreign airlines coming in with aid.

The Home Ministry has also relaxed the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act to facilitate immediate acceptance of foreign assistance in cash and kind by various agencies. Such agencies, including NGOs, can now accept foreign assistance without the Centre's approval subject to the condition that the agency will open a new bank account designated as Gujarat Earthquake Relief Account and submit its particulars in Form FC- 1A to the Foreigners Division of the Ministry. The form can be downloaded from the website, http://mha.nic.in/fore.htm.

The Centre has identified a team of psychiatrists for counseling traumatised victims of the quake.

Now that the State Government is more organised, it has identified 492 villages out of 630 in Bhuj district affected by the quake. Of them, 150 were ``badly hit'', the Agriculture Secretary, Mr. Bhaskar Barua, said here today after a meeting of the Crisis Management Group.

There is still no account of the missing people or those buried under the rubble. To prevent outbreak of epidemic, tonnes of bleaching powder and insecticide have been sent to Gujarat. Children at rehabilitation camps are been vaccinated against measles, he said.

Old Bhuj and Anjar towns have been cordoned off by the Army to prevent looting. The Surajbari bridge to Bhuj has been repaired to take on heavy vehicles at regulated speed. The Kandla airport had become operational by the day. The Railway will run a special train from Delhi carrying GI sheets for shelter and 30 earth- moving equipment.

While water supply has not been restored, drinking water was being supplied in tankers. The Air Force had done 110 sorties on IL-76, 218 sorties on AN-32 and 32 on HS-748 and Dorniers. Fifty- eight flights had come from foreign countries carrying relief material. Naval ships anchored at the Kandla port were functioning as hospitals.

Nearly 11,000 surgeries were performed at Bhuj, of which 1,629 were major. About 1,600 amputations were done to save the lives of victims. The International Red Cross has set up a 310-bedded hospital at Bhuj where the civil hospital has collapsed taking with it doctors, nurses and patients.

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