Include quake in relief manual: Advani

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. The Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, today asked the Gujarat Chief Secretary to amend the State relief manual to include earthquake as this measure would entitle the victims to get statutory relief.

``It takes cognisance of natural calamities like floods, cyclone and drought but excludes earthquake,'' Mr. Advani told The Hindu shortly before leaving for Ahmedabad by train.

The Minister, who represents Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha, said the manual would be amended through an executive order and there was no need to take recourse to any legislation.

The Gujarat Government would also identify villages affected by the earthquake and make the list public so that relief could reach everyone. ``Once the manual is amended and the list is declared, these areas and the affected people will get entitled to the statutory relief due to them.''

Mr. Advani said nearly 1,000 villages spread over 18 districts had been affected and more than half of the devastated villages were in the Kutch. The Minister would visit Mehsana and other adjoining areas during his two-day stay in Gujarat, apart from taking stock of the situation in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Free foodgrains

PTI reports:

Each affected family would get 20 kg of wheat and five kg of rice free of cost every month, the Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, said in Gandhinagar today.

Instructions had been issued to the Civil Supplies department and the distribution would begin immediately. Every family was eligible to receive the foodgrains irrespective of its being below or above the poverty line. The distribution would continue till March 31, 2001, an official release said.

Emergency ration cards were being issued to people who had lost them.

Mr. Patel also asked the Centre to immediately allot an additional 50,000 tonnes of foodgrains to Gujarat.

`Rescue operations on'

The Minister of State for Home, Mr. Haren Pandya, said today in Ahmedabad that the rescue operations had not been abandoned by the Government, which has estimated the toll at between 16,000 and 17,000,.

``The focus continues on rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction,'' Mr. Pandya said adding the process of extricating bodies from the debris was on in many parts of the State.

Two separate schemes for rehabilitation of both villages and cities were being designed and a core group headed by the Chief Minister was also working on the same, he said.

Meanwhile, a godown in Bhuj, storing blankets and other relief materials, was looted by some unidentified persons yesterday.

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