Relief material for J&K lies in neglect on railway platforms

The officials entrusted with dispatching relief material said they had not received instructions regarding distribution of the supplies. “We do not know how many truck loads of relief material have to be sent and where,’’ said M Ali, Assistant Director, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department. “These will be dispatched in trucks immediately after we get instructions from the administration in the Valley,’’ he added.

Sources said a goods train carrying 42 wagons loaded with rice bags reached Udhampur on September 20. On the same day, a special train brought five wagons of relief material from Jammu. The railways informed the administration, but for the first three days, all wagons remained stationed in the railway yard. On September 23, the 42 wagons that brought rice from Chhattisgarh and Bihar were unloaded. The five other wagons, however, remained at the yard as there was hardly any space left at the station to unload them, sources added.

Sources said Udhampur administration had on September 20 hired 200 trucks from Jammu for transporting the relief material to the Valley.

However, after two days, it let those trucks go as no instructions regarding distribution came.