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Maharashtra gains a new tehsil

Vaihayasi P Daniel in Bombay

The control room on the fifth floor at Mantralaya, the Maharashtra government headquarters at Nariman Point, Bombay is a blur of activity. Officers scurry hither thither. Sheaves of papers float in and out. Faxes screech. Meetings are endlessly held and adjourned. Words float in the air...Gujarat... bhukam... Bhachau, CS alle na?

Everybody it seems, here in this office, is working on Gujarat's earthquake relief strategy.

Confirms R K Bhargava, principal secretary, relief and rehabilitation, "About 1,000 personnel in the Maharashtra government are helping with the relief work." Indeed, the state government has formed a core group of 40 top officers, headed by Revenue Minister Ashok Chavan and Protocol Secretary K Nalinakshan to spearhead Maharashtra's relief efforts for its neighbour.

The state has formally adopted the seriously devastated Bhachau tehsil and its surrounding 70 villages, halfway between Bhuj and the Maharashtra border and despatched nine officers and some 200 men to the area to, firstly, assist in relief and at a later date look at rehabilitation.

Says Suresh Kakani, an additional collector deputed from the stamp collectorate, to help coordinate Gujarat relief work, "Bhachau is the second-most affected area. Initially, we will be looking at relief. Later on, the officers we have sent will help draw up rehabilitation plans. They will spend at least a month there."

Kakani adds that the Bhachau team is headed by U C Sarangi, the collector at Latur after the earthquake who was also posted to Erasma in Orissa to work with villages the Maharashtra government adopted there. At the moment, the team, who reached two days ago, after an arduous 60 hour journey by road, is based at the additonal superintendent of police's office in Bhachau.

Bhargava further elaborates that at the moment the focus is mainly on relief. Thousands of people have to be fed, given warmth and the rubble has to be cleared. A man from Bhachau, Champshi Fariya, clad in a white kurta-pyjama and a sad, resigned expression, sits in front of Bhargava. He has come to provide feedback. "He says not a single blanket has reached Bhachau yet. Right?" Fariya nods sombrely.

And how will they go about rehabilitation? What strategy will they adopt. Bhargava explains at this point it is not even clear what rehabilitation they can do. The issue being: How many people are there to really resettle? And do they all want to resettle? Fariya has estimated that only 25 per cent of Bhachau's residents have survived.

The Maharashtra government must work in tandem with the Gujarat government. Officials from both states are not yet at a stage where they have sat down to work out a strategy or formed a consensus. Right now a simple thing like communication is hampering efforts in any direction. The team is armed with satellite phones. But says Bhargava, "I have not been able to get in touch with our team yet properly."

"The team has begun the excavation of the rubble," say Kakani. But the feedback that has trickled in is they would need much more equipment to complete the process. And the next step the team will work at is erecting large temporary structures to provide transitory shelter." Plans for rehabilitation will begin to be chalked out after Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy Chhagan Bhujbal visit Bhachau. "His visit has been tentatively fixed for day after tomorrow," says Kakani.

A huge inventory of supplies has been despatched daily, over the last five days by road, rail and sea to Bhachau, Bhuj and Ahmedabad... Four tonnes of blankets, more than 96 truckloads of grain and food, 600 kg of biscuits, 5,000 tin sheets, a medical team of 235 persons, a dozen gas cutters, 500 blood bags, medicines worth much more than Rs 40 lakhs (Rs 4 million), 50,000 sheets and saris, close to 200 hundred engineers and operators, a crane, six excavators, 10 tractors, a helicopter, three bulldozers, innumerable ambulances and jeeps among a hundreds of other small and big items.

Much of these supplies have been collected from various state government departments and a good deal has come in from the IAF, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bombay Dyeing, Gammon India, Chemist and Druggists Association, Indian Navy, the Kirit Somaiya Trust, the Nargis Dutt Foundation.

Says Kakani, "The CM has circulated a message to the citizens of Maharashtra.'' Collectors's and tehsildars's offices across Bombay and in every district, as well as the Sachivalaya Gymkhana, have become collection depots for supplies.

And what is the need of the hour? "We are looking for heavy machinery. Cranes, bulldozers. And also x-ray film, antiseptic drops, antibiotics, pain killers, plaster of Paris, plastic mugs, glasses, cutlery, crockery, dysentery medicine," rattled off Kakani. Adds Bhargava, "Torches, matches, candles, blankets, tent material, tin sheets, buckets."

Both Bhargava and Kakani confirm that the Maharashtra effort is a very big one. One of the largest relief efforts to be mustered up in the state's history as far as they know. Says Kakani, "Gujarat is the adjacent state. Mobility is high. There are a lot of Gujaratis living in Bombay. So bondage is there too"

And the cost? Bhargava shakes his head. "It is too early to tell you what this will cost the Maharashtra government."

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