Seems like Bharati government is lacking necessary expertise to handle this catastrophe.
here is the news:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7218126
Anger Rises as Does Toll in Remote Indian Islands
Sun Jan 2, 2005 11:34 AM ET
By Sanjeev Miglani and Suresh Seshadri
PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) - Tempers flared over the sluggish pace of aid efforts in India’s remote and restricted Andamans and Nicobars on Sunday as hundreds of bodies lay scattered around the islands a week after the tsunami struck.
Local authorities said a local government officer was manhandled by people angry at not getting relief supplies in Campbell Bay, the main town in the southernmost island of Great Nicobar, where widespread devastation has been reported.
Police had to send reinforcements.
“The situation in Campbell Bay in Great Nicobar is very grim,” a senior island administration official told Reuters in Port Blair, the region’s capital city.
The top army general in the region who is coordinating relief efforts said 400 villagers still remained stranded on a hilltop in the island on the southernmost tip of the archipelago, where they fled to escape the waves.
“I admit that some areas south of Campbell Bay are still marooned but we have now reached all those who are marooned by air dropping food and other supplies and more than 200 people have been evacuated by helicopters,” Lt. Gen. B.S. Thakur said.
The chain of more than 500 islands, most of them uninhabited, lie 800 miles east off the Indian mainland, and have a couple of military airbases located on them.
MISTRUST OF OUTSIDERS
Also home to hundreds of stone age tribespeople, many of the islands are off limits to foreigners and mainland Indians alike.
Mistrust of outsiders by the military and local bureaucracy has compounded the practical difficulties of the aid effort.
Aid workers from foreign relief groups Medicins Sans Frontieres and Oxfam have languished in Port Blair, unable to reach the badly hit southern islands.
Indian Christian groups complain local officials were hindering their attempts to take aid to the tribes, many of whom are Christian.
“We have been sitting here in Port Blair trying to send a 100 volunteers … to Car Nicobar and other badly hit islands,” said Sudipta Roy, program director at the Church of North India, an umbrella organization for churches in northern India.
“But the administration is refusing to allow us access to some regions and this is extremely frustrating.”
Local officials said the question of allowing international aid agencies access to the worst-hit southern islands was a decision that could only be made by the federal government.
Lt. Gen. Thakur said, however, there was no attempt to deny foreign nationals access for reasons of national security.
“There is no such rationale that is stated per se,” he said. “We have taken the foreign media to Car Nicobar even today.”
Authorities in New Delhi say there are 812 confirmed deaths in the entire chain but India’s army chief told reporters that in the worst-hit island of Car Nicobar alone, more than 1,000 corpses lay scattered.
India raised its tsunami toll to 14,488 dead or feared dead on Sunday including 5,421 missing on the islands.
Most islands can only be reached by sea but last Sunday’s monster waves destroyed jetties. Rescue workers have been using small boats to land, but many inland roads are not cleared.
“GHOST VILLAGES”
Authorities say they are getting their act together.
“The momentum is picking up slowly. There are difficulties, bodies have to be spotted, identified,” Army Chief N.C. Vij told reporters. The army is using sniffer dogs to find victims.
Authorities have started vaccinating survivors against cholera, typhoid and tetanus.
“The main concern remains the threat of epidemic and the process of removing bodies continues,” said Brigadier J.M. Devados, the overall relief commander for the Car Nicobar island where thousands are dead or missing.
“Twelve of 15 villages have been washed away. Villages are ghost villages.”
Sitting astride vital trade routes heading west from the straits of Malacca, the islands offer India a vital foothold in southeast Asia and a counter to Chinese influence in the region.
Ruled directly from New Delhi, the islands housed a notorious jail during British colonial rule. Even today, critics say the welfare of locals is low on New Delhi’s priorities.
“Times have changed but not mindsets,” the Indian Express wrote on Sunday.
“The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is a collective second class citizen. Welcome to India’s in-house colony,” it said.
But amid the palpable grief, there were a few moments of joy.
In the Andamans, a couple and their six-month-old baby lived off coconut water for three days before a military helicopter rescued them.
(For more news about emergency relief visit Reuters AlertNet http://www.alertnet.org email: [email protected]; +44 207 542 2432)
(Additional reporting by Kamil Zaheer in New Delhi)