DAMMAM, 27 February — The relief aid for Gujarat earthquake victims, which has been a subject of controversy in the Eastern Province for the past three weeks, has eventually fallen victim to the apathy of the Indian Embassy officials in Riyadh and bureaucratic sidestepping.
India's national carrier Air-India which has undertaken the mission of transporting relief goods to Ahmedabad free of cost has set Feb. 28 as the deadline, but until yesterday not a single consignment has been shipped from here. Nearly 60 tons of goods including foodstuffs, dairy products, clothes, blankets, medicines and tentage are lying either with Air-India or at the warehouse of Kanoo Cargo.
After the earthquake that devastated the west Indian state on Jan. 26, the Indian community in the Eastern Province in cooperation with other expatriates and Saudi citizens began a campaign to collect relief materials. As a result, more than 100 tons of goods were amassed by cultural and social organizations. Out of that nearly 60 tons were transported to Kanoo Cargo for final forwarding and another 40 tons are lying with those organizations and individuals as Kanoo Cargo is unable to accept them due to lack of warehouse space.
Officials at Air-India say that they are ready to transport the goods at the shortest notice, provided the embassy gets clearance from the Saudi authorities. Sunil Deshmukh, Air-India manager in Dammam, said that the airline was even ready to extend the deadline if it was given clearance to carry the goods.
It appears, however, that all the efforts will go vain as there is no one at the embassy willing to address the problem. Arab News has been following up the issue with First Secretary V.K. Sharma and Press Consul Zikr-ur-Rahman. Rahman has always been saying that it is a matter of time and that they have sent letters to appropriate authorities. But it appears that their "all efforts" were restricted to sending letters through proper channels and with no concrete result.
Embassy officials have also been giving wrong information to people who contacted them with relief supplies. Abdullah Rizvi, a prominent Indian, called Rahman. He was told that there was no problem now and that he should contact Air-India for ferrying the goods. A member of the joint relief committee received a similar reply from Sharma's assistant Abhijeet Chatopadhya. It is clearly evident the embassy is passing the buck on Air-India.
When Arab News tried to contact the embassy to establish the facts, it learned that V.K. Sharma, in charge for relief operations, had gone on vacation. Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad and Rahman were busy in Jeddah with Haj operations and Sharma's assistant Chatopadhya was not aware of the confusion.
Now as things stand, there is no one to pursue the case with the local officials and more than 100 tons of supplies are lying with no hope of sending them to those in need even though newspaper reports indicate that the "earthquake victims are mired in misery."
The Indian community in the Eastern Province is indignant over the whole attitude of the embassy toward the operation and lack of action on part of the ambassador. They say that had the embassy taken the issue seriously, the material would have been distributed among the victims by now. Indians say that if the ambassador acts even now, the situation could improve. If not transported to India, they wonder what will happen to nearly 100 tons of goods collected through selfless efforts of various community groups and individuals.
