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Shops open in Bhuj for the first time

Sheela Bhatt in Bhuj, Gujarat

Saturday morning, Epicentre Bhuj crawled past the immediate aftermath of The Gujarat Tragedy into the future.

For the first time after the quake, Bhid Bazaar was back in business, albeit for a few hours. One spotted ganthia, a typical Gujarati snack, being bought off the store-shelves. "This is a sure sign of people coming to terms with the reality and trying to get on with reconstruction of life," a shop-keeper said.

Shops that survived the deadly tremors were cleaned and the grain market resumed operations.

Lavendru Man Singh, chief coordinator, relief operations, said positive thinking has returned to officials and bureaucrats involved in care. "We have taken some major decisions last night to restore normalcy."

Some commercial banks, he said, will resume work on Saturday. The Bhuj District Bank has erected tents where a few branches (whose buildings were affected) will resume banking operations. Mobile banking services would reopen within a week.

At the Jivapar village, plans are afoot to reopen schools under trees if Saturday is sunny with with clear skies. The last few days have been partly cloudy. Here, the schoolteachers were among those who perished. So Class XII students have been asked to double up as teachers for classes VIII, IX and X.

Meanwhile, the government has postponed the higher secondary school board examinations.

Gandhi Associates, a firm specialising in erecting exhibition halls like those at Delhi's Pragati Maidan, has been asked to pitch temporary stalls. These will help shopkeepers among the quake-hit to resume their businesses.

In keeping with the community-wise pattern of Gujarat society, shamiana experts from Rajasthan are setting up eight makeshift community halls for respective groups. These halls would have toilets and essential electricity fixtures like lights, and will offer gaddars (thick blankets) to survivors.

People who are in a position to make their own arrangements are being encouraged to do so. It is learnt several families are keen to erect temporary shelters of their own near the debris of their households. "They want to maintain a vigil for their remaining belongings," Singh said.

The defence secretary has apparently asked the ministry's tent-making factory in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to work non-stop and produce adequate number of tents for the survivors in Gujarat.

Although the Bhuj authorities have 300 tents, they are not being used. "Their number is not big enough to take care of the needs of all. We don't want people to fight for the tents," Singh said.

People who want to stay outdoors are provided with thick plastic sheets. Temporary identity cards would be given to survivors so that the incoming aid from international community is not misused.

At the Jubilee Grounds, the Sintex company, maker of pre-fabricated overhead water-tanks, has erected two semi-permanent rooms to be used for treating patients. The company is planning to build 50 rooms in all. Doctors and paramedics tend to about 1,000 patients at the grounds in makeshift shelters.

When ready, the complex will serve as a replacement for the General Hospital that has been laid to waste. Multinational electronics major Philips has donated portable x-ray machines for use in the quake-hit areas.

In the context of concerns about the spread of epidemics, Singh said Bhuj's civic body, riven with internal politics, has not been functioning even before the quake. This has compounded the problem of lack of civic amenities.

After the quake, two senior officials have been asked to oversee municipal works. One of them is Ashwin Mehta, deputy municipal commissioner, Surat.

Surat was once considered one of the filthiest Indian cities. However, the outbreak of plague in 1995 led to a positive transformation in the standards of civic amenities. Officials expect a similar miracle here. "Bhuj will be rebuilt as a model city," Singh said.

The Complete Coverage | List of earthquake sites

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