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On the first anniversary of the October 8 earthquake, while some survivors in Jammu and Kashmir remember their dead, others are angry that relief money from the government is yet to reach them and that their shattered homes and towns are nowhere close to being rebuilt
A year after a devastating earthquake struck Jammu and Kashmir and neighbouring Pakistan, survivors in one of the worst-hit towns on the Indian side protested against the slow pace of rehabilitation, even as thousands of people commemorated the first anniversary of the October 8 quake.
Hundreds of people in Uri, in Jammu and Kashmir, took to the streets on October 8 to protest against non-payment of the first instalment of relief, even as India's home minister Shivraj Patil was on a tour of the frontier regions of Teetwal and Tangdhar to assess the pace of rehabilitation.
Demonstrating outside the town's main market, the protestors claimed that around 300 people had not received even Rs 40,000 of the Rs 1 lakh sanctioned by the state government for relatives of the victims. They also criticised the state government's alleged failure to rebuild the town.
Other survivors paid tribute to their loves ones who had been claimed by the worst quake to hit this region in living memory. People offered prayers to the dead at several places including Tangdhar and Baramulla. But even as they did this, they complained that the authorities had done little to help them rebuild their homes or address their other problems. Those living in makeshift shelters said they were preparing for a second winter of hardship.
Thirty-year-old Sakina, a resident of Baramulla, whose husband died in the quake, says she and her four sons have no place to build their home. "I am suffering from asthma. My husband would earlier take me to hospital, but now I am left with no one to care for me."
People living in a relief camp near Baramulla said they were worried about their future, as they had no means to earn a livelihood. "There are no job opportunities and we demand that the government help us," said one camp resident.
Other residents, however, are grateful for the support given by the government in building new homes. "We did not expect to start our lives all over again. Or that we would be getting this facility, these kinds of houses. Rather, after the earthquake it is really good that the government and Helpage India have helped us by giving us this house," says Aijaz Ahmed.
Frequent landslides and the mountainous terrain have acted as barriers to the rehabilitation process.
Last year's quake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, killed more than 1,300 people in the state and destroyed large parts of the border towns of Uri, Tangdhar and Teetwal, and northern areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Source: Hindustan Times, October 9, 2006
ANI, October 8, 2006
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