SRINAGAR, 15 October 2005 — Authorities in quake-hit Indian-administered Kashmir yesterday announced new measures to step up aid efforts for 150,000 people left homeless by the earthquake.
A panel managing relief operations in Jammu and Kashmir state, said large halls would be constructed to house the homeless over the winter. Twenty halls, each having a capacity to house 300 people will be constructed as a matter of urgency as temperatures are already beginning to plummet in the state.
State Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who chairs the reconstruction committee said a cash payment of Rs. 100,000 ($2,325) would be made to each family toward rebuilding their razed homes. Each family with damaged houses will receive Rs. 10,000 each. Through much of the day, relief items slowly reached people living under the open sky in the worst-affected northern regions of the state.
The state government has been criticized for not organizing systematic distribution of relief items. For instance, while most of the relief items were distributed in the town of Uri, people in villages like Teetwal and Gurez were struggling to survive.
Nearly 20,000 tents are needed for people in the quake-ravaged areas, but only 7,000 had been distributed so far, relief workers said. A senior Home Ministry official, A. Khurana, who is with the National Disaster Management division, said 6,000 more tents will be dispatched to the state.
Meanwhile tremors continued to scare survivors a week after the killer quake struck the region. Two aftershocks were felt in the worst-hit Baramulla and Kupwara districts. Over 40 aftershocks have been felt in the region so far.
But that has not stopped people from getting on with the job of rebuilding their homes. “We cannot keep suffering and waiting for government relief. We have to get on with our lives,” said Abdul Azim, who used to run a small shop in the Tangdhar area.
In Indian territory more than 1,300 people were killed and at least 4,373 were injured.
The number of fatalities might rise further as six remote villages in Kupwara have not been reached by relief teams so far. Some 1,200 people are missing. Unofficial estimates say the number of dead could reach 2,000 in India.
India, Pakistan Put Politics
Before Relief: Omar
India and Pakistan are playing politics with earthquake relief, and have missed a great opportunity to build closer ties in a time of tragedy, Kashmir’s main moderate separatist leader said yesterday.
India’s tepid response to the tragedy has also reinforced a sense of alienation among many ordinary Kashmiris living on its side of the divided Himalayan territory, said Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
“We thought both countries should have risen beyond politics, but the only thing we see is them involved in scoring brownie points off each other,” said the 34-year-old.
Meanwhile, Muslims across Indian Kashmir prayed yesterday for those killed in the devastating quake. “We are holding special prayers for those who died in the earthquake,” said Omar Farooq, the chief priest at Kashmir’s main Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
“We will also pray for the survivors who have lost their homes and their near ones,” said Omar.
He said the special ceremonies would be led off at the 17th century Mughal period mosque here in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, but also held across Kashmir.
Omar urged the business community to close down for three hours from midday and to join the prayers in Indian Kashmir, where 68 percent of the 10 million population is Muslim.
He also urged people to donate for survivors of Saturday’s huge tremor that killed more than 1,300 people in Indian Kashmir alone.
