| One year after tsunami, victims are in a misery | |||
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| The miserable lives of thousands of hapless people in the coastal belt of Kerala reveal the inefficiency and irresponsibility of the State Government in tackling the consequences of the natural disasters. In the State, over 170 people died, of whom 158 were in Alappad village in Kollam district and Arattupuzha village in Alappuzha district.
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| When compared with the other two affected districts, there were no serious casualties in Ernakulam district, but many people suffered injuries and lost their valuables in Vypeen, Edavanakkad, Nayarambalam, Njarackal, Puthuvypu, Malippuarm, Chellanam and other costal areas of the district. In Ernakulam district, seven panchayats were hit by the tsunami.
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| "Not even half of the affected people got any kind of aid from the Government. Some NGOs, banks and charitable organisations provided relief and reconstructed houses of the affected families," Mr TC Subramanian, an activist of Vypeen, said.
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| According to him, the Government failed to deal with the post-tsunami situation and it could not provide the necessary aid, including financial aid, to the tsunami-affected people.
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| "In many areas of Ernakulam district, politicians and local leaders deceived the poor fishermen by diverting the tsunami fund to their favourites," alleged Mr Subramanian.
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| Mr George, a native of Malippuram, whose house was completely destroyed by the tsunami, expressed his anger: "Though the Chief Minister promised that funds would not be a problem for tsunami rehabilitation, we got just Rs 1,000 in the initial stage and did not get any other financial assistance from the Government."
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| Not even 50 per cent of the total population along the 2-kilometre coastline of Vypeen island, worst-affected by the tsunami, got any kind of assistance. | |||
| "The Government collected nearly Rs 1,000 crore as the tsunami relief fund, but the authorities spent only about Rs 100 crore for rehabilitation work. Bureaucrats misused the money meant for the rehabilitation," complains Mr Lal Koyiparambil, leader of the Kerala Malsya Thozhilali Federation.
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| He said that, during the post-tsunami days, the Government had taken an irresponsible attitude towards the fisheries sector and the fishing community. | |||
| Meanwhile, there are widespread allegations that the authorities have shown a clear discrimination against Dalits in tsunami relief and rehabilitation. "The discrimination against Dalits is very much clear in all the three affected districts. | |||
| "In Ernakulam, among the 844 tsunami-affected dalit families, only a few got nominal assistance. In all, 716 houses of Dalits were destroyed, but only 12 families got new houses," according to R Prakash, State convenor of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR).
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| He said that at Chellanam in Ernakulam district, the district authorities have not visited the eastern parts, where the backward classes are in a majority.
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| These families complained many times to the authorities, but no action was taken. The jury of the national public hearing held in Kochi recently, conducted by the NCDHR, remarked that the authorities had not taken care to assess the damage in the Dalit-majority areas.
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"Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power.
It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality."
- Dr BR Ambedkar
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