Earthquake relief work

Indians angry over Embassy's apathy.

                                           By Saeed Haider

 The relief aid for Gujarat earthquake victims which has been a subject of controversy in the Eastern Province for the past three weeks, has eventually fall victim to the apathy of the Indian Embassy in Riyadh and bureaucratic norms.

The Indian national carrier Air-India which has undertaken the mission of transporting those relief goods to Ahmedabad free of cost has set a deadline of Feb. 28 and until today not a single relief material has gone. Nearly 60 tons of goods including, food, clothes, milk, blankets, medicine and tents are lying either with Air-India or at the warehouse of Kanoo Cargo. After the quake, Indian community in the Eastern Province in cooperation with other expatriate communities and Saudis began collection of materials and as a result more than 100 tons of goods were collected by several cultural and social organizations. Out of that nearly 60 tons were transported to Kanoo Cargo for final transportation and another 40 tons are lying with those organizations and individuals as Kanoo Cargo has refused to accept them due to lack of space.

Officials at Air-India say that they are ready to transport the goods at the shortest notice, provided the embassy gets clearance from the Saudi authorities. Sunil Deshmukh, Air-India manager in Dammam, said that the airline is ready to even extend the date if it gets clearance to carry the goods. But it appears that all the efforts will go down the drain as there is no one at the embassy to seek the clearance. Arab News has been following up the issue with first secretary V.K. Sharma and another secretary and Press consular Zikr-ur-Rahman. Rahman has always been saying that it was a matter of few days and that they have sent the letter to appropriate authorities. But it appears that their all efforts were

restricted to sending letters and that too  through proper channels and therefore there was no concrete result. But in actuallity, the embassy officials have been giving wrong information to people who contacted embassy for the relief goods. For example, Abdullah Rizvi, a prominent Indian, called Rahman who told him that there was now no problem and he should contact Air-India,. Similarly a  member of the Joint Relief committee was told by  Sharmašs assistant Abhijeet Chatopadhya that there was now no problem and he should contact Air-India. It is clearly evident the embassy is passing the buck on Air-India. When Arab News tried to contact Indian Embassy to know the present status, it was learnt that V.K. Sharma, in charge for relief operations, has gone on vacation. Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad and Rahman  were busy in Jeddah with Haj operations and Sharmašs assistant Abhijeet chatopadhya was not aware of the hiccups .  Now as things stand, there is no one to pursue the case with the officials, and goods more than 100 tons are lying with no hope of sending them to the victims. And the tragedy is that newspaper reports that Earthquake victims mired in misery. 

Indian community in the Eastern Province is indignant over the whole attitude of the embassy toward the operation and lack of action on part of the ambassador. They say that had embassy taken the issue seriously, material would have been distributed among the victims by now.Indians say that if ambassador acts even now, things could go to the earthquake victims. And if things are not transported to India then what will happen to nearly 100 tons of goods, they ask.

   

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METAMORPHOSIS

 

Sandeep Krishnan, Tellichery

 

Childhood Days; were so wonderful

Butterflies and flowers were really colorful

Fascination was anew,

To our unconditioned minds.

Each new story; enchanted our minds.

 

With friendly delight; mutually we shared

Eatables and toys; nothing went unshared

Our muddied hands, smeared each other’s face

Modest were our minds, and immaculate our hearts

That our friend’s sorrow; was as well, ours

 

As we grow, everything, changed???

Innocence is foolish’ ambition claimed

To be significant, we call craved

 

Sense of sharing no more remain,

Hearth that ached, now utterly fail,

To rescue a friend, struggling in-vain

 

In the furnace of Ego virtue melt,

In the world of illusion, money dominate

Childhood; a colorful dream

Butterflies and flowers were really colorful

 

 

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