A joint meeting was conducted with members from DSSW, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Help Age India. The entire road to Chhatapur, Triveniganj Block is washed away with water level of 3-3.5 feet at various levels. The major station is at Bhuthi Baandh where the marooned victims are staying in temporary shelters. The road link to this place is non-motorable. There are six stretches of water with approximately 2-2.5 feet of water level. Three-four patches of heavy current and an increased risk level were perceived by the team. Rescued families are leaving from Triveniganj with their belongings in plastic bags and jute sacks. As the road to Bhuthi Bandh is non-motorable the relief material cannot reach there. In addition to this is the unwillingness of the administration to reach out to the people. Migration is in huge numbers; 10,000-15,000 people came in a span of two hours as observed by the Team. People of all age groups including infants, pregnant ladies, and elderly are migrating to the safer places. The villages around and beyond the Bhuthi Baandh are completely submerged. Even the Army personnel admitted to the fact that 80% of the people from this area have not been rescued or evacuated. Around 10% are unwilling to move because of the fear of their goods getting stolen or looted. In 90% of the cases it was found that there is a lack of coordination between civil administration and defence personnel. In most of the cases the family has left the older members in the home so that they can watch over the resources available in the family.
The matter of utmost and urgent concern is that people have reported massive discrepancies and discrimination in the relief work. Private boats are charging upto 50,000/- including jewellery for rescuing the marooned people. On account of non-payment in certain cases there have been reports of people being dropped in the mid river. Absolute apathy on the part of boatmen and the administration has resulted in people waiting endlessly for the boats to ferry their families to safety. Even after repeated attempts boats are not reaching out intentionally to areas inhabited by Harijans. Even distribution of food items are being done far way (say 10 kms) from these vulnerable areas and groups forcing starved people to traverse this distance and that to on feet. In a few cases, the team successfully intervened on behalf of the elderly for tractor rides.
As mentioned earlier the relief camps in Saharsa are not in good condition and to add to it more and more refugees are flocking in giving rise to major medical concerns. DSW and Help Age’s first Mobile Medical Van, and the only one in the area would start functioning from 1500hrs today covering the relief camps. Dr. Ajay, a local physician, has joined the team to take care of the medical needs. There is a severe dearth of doctors in the area and all the available ones are neck-deep in relief work. A team of five para-medical staff with medicines worth Rs. 1lac will go with the second team from Delhi. Talks are also on to tap the alumni network of Aligarh Muslim University for more manpower. The team has assessed that the immediate need is for IVF bottles and Lactogen feed for babies whose mothers are unable to feed them. Here in Delhi, talks are on with various medical training institutions for trained medical relief workers. It has been planned that the first team would return two days after the second team reaches and the initial touch-basing is done.
Towards the afternoon the team visited a place which is 100kms away from the base camp and 55-60 kms away from the District Headquarters in Supaul. This place is in Basantpur Block where supposedly more than 100 villages had been submerged. People have made their own temporary shelters of plastic sheets or whatever material was readily available to them since the 21st of August. Approximately 30,000 to 35,000 huts accommodating a population of nearly 1 lakh are clustered at this place. Supplies of relief are very inadequate and are not reaching the beneficiaries in a proper way. Apart from the major chunk that came on 21st, everyday there is an addition of new families to the area which has already exceeded its carrying capacity. This is one area that they have identified apart from Bhuthi bandh and Triveniganj. The name of the place is Tathaiya Hydropower Station which is basically closed now and does not operate. The hutments that were referred to earlier are close to Tathaiya at Basantpur Block in Birpur, Supaul.
From there the team moved to the Indo-Nepal border also and went as far as Kosadh which is the place where the breach took place. In general the Nepalese army does not allow civilians to move in that area. The team noticed that even on the other side of the border (Nepal) there are huge numbers of people in hutments. But interestingly on the Nepal side the relief management and the relief operation is much better as compared to the Indian side. This was evident as a good number of them have regular electricity supply through generators and apart from that they have a regular supply of eatables.
The team and Help Age’s MMV has become functional but the team is debating on the logistics like travelling 200 kms each day which is practically not feasible and nor desirable. In this case the team in consultation with Help Age is considering other alternatives. Dr. Jha informed that apart from medical needs, the team will cater to needs for which they have the potential or resources available. He emphasised on the point that the most important and basic need at this hour is for medicines, medical help, food and tarpaulin sheets, the last item specially so because of the impending rains in the days to come.
.jpg)
