Relief begins, so does Cong politics

Baramulla Deputy Commissioner Ajaz Kakroo told The Indian Express that Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad—who is in charge of the Central relief effort—has assured him of full cooperation and told him not to give in to any pressure. But, Kakroo said, Consumer Affairs Minister Taj Mohideen of the Congress is interfering in the relief distribution process.

‘‘I will not be bullied by anybody and will ensure transparency,’’ Kakroo told The Indian Express.

Although the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government constituted a joint disaster management cell—led by Divisional Commissioner B B Vyas—the Congress is running a parallel relief distribution operation.

It has deputed two ministers, Mohideen and Road and Building Minister G A Mir, to Uri and Tangdhar respectively. Mohideen is a local MLA from Uri.

Kakroo said he has told the government in very clear terms that he needs a free hand to distribute the relief in an equitable manner. ‘‘I am accountable and if any Minister is to make the decisions, the government should shift me. I will not budge an inch under any pressure and will ensure that relief reaches to everybody,’’ he said.

The quake-hit villagers across Uri are angry too. ‘‘The Minister ensures that relief reaches to villages where the Congress has a stronghold,’’ said Abdul Hamid, a resident of Pawdein. Hamid has lost his wife, Fatima, and two-year-old son Sajad Ali.

Villages least affected in the quake like Chandanwari, Nowshehra, Peernia have been provided relief and tents. While Thajal and Pawdein, which lost 20 people in the quake, are still waiting. Similar is the plight of villages like Mohara, Gingal, Dawaran, Nilooa, Danisayeedian, Mayan, Lachipora, where an estimated eighty percent of the houses are damaged.

‘‘No team has reached our village and we are being discriminated against because our village is a traditional votebank of National Conference,’’ he said.

Mohideen also asked the police at Chahla, en route to uri, to stop dozens of vehicles of voluntary organisations that were carrying food and blankets for quake victims on Thursday.

Contacted by The Indian Express, Mohideen denied he was interfering in relief operations but admitted that he had ordered the relief vehicles to be stopped. His explanation: ‘‘Some NGOs come and distribute torn clothes and create unnecessary problems. That’s why we stopped these vehicles.’’ Asked what these problems were, he declined to elaborate.

Asked why he had taken over relief operations, the Minister said that ‘‘some officers were lax in the first few days.’’

‘‘I asked them to work professionally,’’ he said. ‘‘We distributed relief in the worst-hit villages first and villages with less damage will be taken care of in the second phase.’’ Asked to name the ‘‘lax officers,’’ he declined to comment.

When Pradesh Congress Chief and Rural Development Minister Peerzada Sayeed was contacted by The Indian Express and asked why his party was distributing relief independently of the government, he said: ‘‘We have sought the party’s permission and want to speed up relief distribution process.’’

It is learnt that Congress workers took over the relief consignment sent by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation when it arrived yesterday. ‘‘The government received the consignment of 30,000 blankets but it is unaccounted for. It was taken by few Congress leaders as soon as it was received,’’ a senior official said in Srinagar.

Sayeed, however, distanced himself from the relief sent by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation saying that the party has nothing to do with the foundation and it is a voluntary group.