SRINAGAR, 18 October 2005 — State authorities and military resumed relief operations to distribute tents and airdrop food items to thousands of homeless people in quake-hit areas of India-administered Kashmir, officials said yesterday.
A defense spokesman told reporters in Sringar that airdropping operations will continue till the weather permits.
Heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir state had caused the army and air force to suspend helicopter sorties to the worst-affected districts of Kupwara and Baramulla on Saturday evening.
Over 1,600 people were killed in Jammu and Kashmir state, when it was jolted by a powerful earthquake on Oct. 8. Nearly 50,000 families were left homeless. People, particularly the aged, are fighting for survival, including Bilqis Dar, an artisan from Kamalkote village in Baramulla district who is still shelterless in the cold a week after the disaster.
“I spent all my money in building my house. How can I rebuild it again? I do not think this tragedy is over. I fear the worst is yet to come,” said the 72-year-old who lost his only son in the quake.
Many families like Dar’s were struggling with the elements of nature in areas like Tangdar in Kupwara and Uri in Baramulla. Without a roof over their heads and the mercury plummeting with each passing day, the need for reaching tents in these areas is even more urgent.
State Chief Secretary Vijay Bakaya however said the state government was pitching in its best effort despite the inclement weather. “With the weather improving, we will begin distributing cash relief now,” he said.
Many areas in the northern part of the state still remain cut off because of fresh landslides. Relief teams have not yet reached areas like Karnah, 200 kilometers north of state capital, Srinagar. Health authorities ruled out the outbreak of an epidemic in the quake-hit areas. Director of Health Services Muzaffar said mobile medical teams had covered most villages to provide medical treatment and ensure provision of potable water.
Meanwhile, the NDTV reported that the central government is likely to favorably respond to the state government’s plea for opening telephone links to enable people to talk to their relatives in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
People in the state are anxious about the fate of their relatives on the other side of the Line of Control (LOC) that divides the Kashmir region. They have already urged the authorities that they be allowed to travel across to Pakistan-administered Kashmir to meet their relatives.
“The Line of Control is drawn not on a piece of land but across our hearts. My relatives are in Chillhana village, the first village on the other side of the LOC yet I have no knowledge about their fate,” said Fareeda of Khawaja Mohalla in Teetwal area. New Delhi, meanwhile has allowed Pakistan to fly its helicopters in the peacetime no fly-zone — one kilometer along the LOC — as a humanitarian gesture to help it in its relief efforts.
India has already dispatched the third consignment of relief material to its neighbor by train yesterday.
