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Relief yet to reach interior Kutch

Josy Joseph in Bhuj

Relief work and rescue operations continue to be concentrated around the national highway passing through Kutch, while hundreds of villages in the interiors have been left to fend for themselves.

The January 26 quake has caused massive damage in small villages in interior Bhuj, but relief teams have not reached most of them as a haphazard rescue operation remains crippled by lack of planning and co-ordination.

Along the highway between Bachchau and Bhuj, running through Anjaar, thousands of trucks move on with relief teams. They halt at Bachchau, Anjaar and Bhuj. The three towns now probably have more relief material than they can handle.

"The situation in villages is worse," points out a resident of Mora Cheri, a village where over 300 continue to lie under the debris. The remaining of the total population of 3000 have not received any relief and have spent almost a week now without enough food, proper clothing and a roof over their head.

"There are numerous villages in the interiors where we are yet to reach," admits a senior district official at Bhuj. "But we don't have enough teams nor proper direction to proceed," he says.

Kutch is one of India's biggest districts with a population of 15 lakh and 966 villages.

Relief operations by most of the Indian agencies lack proper planning and decisions are being taken on the spur of the moment. There is no centralised co-ordination either to direct the thousands of agencies and individuals reaching the townships to assist the affected.

Several tonnes of food, medicines and clothes are lying at the Bhuj airport, while villagers in interiors cry out for tents and kerosene.

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