 NEW DELHI (AP)
Millions remain in shelter camps
Police killed one man and injured four yesterday during a riot in
northern India over the lack of aid for flood victims even as the
government announced it was scaling back relief efforts.
Devastating monsoon floods have laid waste to much of northern India
and Bangladesh in recent weeks, killing more than 2,000 people and
displacing millions. Several hundred people attacked and ransacked a
government relief office in the town of Sonebarsa in the state of
Bihar, protesting the lack of aid, said local police chief Kunwar
Singh. Police used batons to disperse the crowd, killing one person and
wounding four others, he said.
The violence came as the Bihar government announced it was scaling back
flood relief efforts and ending airdrops of supplies, as land routes
were re-established to villagers who had been cut off by the waters.
“The government sees that the situation has eased considerably, so we
have decided to stop air-dropping relief from (today),” said Manoj
Shrivastav, the disaster management secretary in Bihar, the Indian
state hit hardest by the floods.
Shrivastav said most road and rail links to cut-off areas had been
restored. Roads had already been cleared in Assam and Uttar Pradesh,
two other Indian states badly hit by the floods.
At least 15 people died yesterday in Bangladesh, according to the
government. No new deaths were reported in India.
However, there was widespread dissatisfaction with the ongoing
government aid effort. The government has also been criticized for its
poor planning for the annual monsoon and its slow response. In northern
Bihar’s Pataura village, angry residents beat up a government official,
claiming some of the aid promised them had disappeared. “We are
supposed to get 4 liters of kerosene oil. Instead we only got two,”
said Tarni Srivastava, adding that help only reached the area Saturday.
“Where were you all these days?” he said, after receiving his family
allowance of 20 kilograms of wheat.
In the village of Vardaha some 25 kilometres down the road, no
government aid had arrived yet and villagers were existing on rice
handouts from local aid groups. Many were sick with the waterborne
diseases that often strike after floods. “When we have no money for
food how are we supposed to afford medicines,” said Edwari Devi who was
trying to treat her two young daughters who were sick with high fever.
Last update on: 13-8-2007 |