Insurance vultures gorge on Kandla

KANDLA, June 13: It's only five days since the cyclone struck Gujarat and relief workers recovered 934 bodies (the numbers increasing). Kand...

KANDLA, June 13: It’s only five days since the cyclone struck Gujarat and relief workers recovered 934 bodies (the numbers increasing). Kandla, the worst affected, is a ghost town, and vultures have already descended. They have come from far off places: Mumbai, Surat and Ahmedabad. Their purpose: take back the retrieved grain and goods from port godowns and claim insurance.

Long queues of trucks could be seen leaving Kandla early in the morning filled with gunny bags covered with tarpaulin. These vultures have already started gorging on the calamity to further their own interests. In the absence of proper checks and balances the ugly side of the tragedy is emerging fast with more than Rs 50 crore worth of submerged grain in the 32 port godowns is waiting to be disposed of.

The insurance racket can be seen at a very nascent stage right now even before the town has seen the last of its dead bodies. Though the loss is being estimated in thousands of crores, hundreds of loaded and semi-loaded trucks areparked outside the warehouses. Their status is unknown at the moment.

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The exporters and traders were among the first few to descend on the town to assess their damages. Some of them, in the process have started taking advantage of the situation where human tragedy is on everybody’s mind.

In one particular instance, a Mumbai-based exporter of basmati rice said that he had suffered a loss of Rs 15 crores but later, on closer questioning he reduced it to Rs 7 crores. Most of the other exporters gave inflated figures on being questioned on the extent of damages.

Nearly 15 of them are camping at a local hotel and with the administration and the port authorities busy in other pressing matters, some of them are actually moving it to destinations of their choice. By the time the insurance authorities wake up, it will be too late. With a tragedy of this magnitude, it is easy to prove that entire truck-loads was washed away. Mixing it with the other stock to recycle is what looks like a convenient option.

Onthe other hand the port authorities have also been slow in getting their act together. By the end of the fourth day, they have only managed to set up a committee under the port health officer, sanitary inspectors to certify whether the food-grain lying inside the Port premises is fit for human consumption or not. “Most probably, it will be dumped into the sea,” said the chief traffic controller. No body has been formed as yet to oversee whether the foodgrain will actually be dumped into the sea or will find its way into the markets once again through the back door.

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With the scattered grain proving to be a health hazard, it is even more important on this particular side. Till Saturday, the assessment had not begun. With time running short, the chances are that it will be done in a slip-shod manner letting people get away with what they can.