Pay-money syndrome scuttles relief

BHUJ/AHMEDABAD: Gujarat should have been well on the road to recovery. But mismanagement of relief funds and delays in investigation against builders, architects, town planners, and civil engineers have added to the victims' trauma. The Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) says that the total amount required for rehabilitation work is Rs 10,000 crore.The aid it has received or is expecting from international organisations amounts to Rs 3,300 crore from the World Bank, Rs 1,656 crore from the Asian Development Bank, Rs 290 crore from Netherlands, Rs 1,000 crore from the Government of India, plus smaller amounts from other NGOs. But there is little reconstruction. The former Speaker of the State assembly, Kundanlal Dholakia, says, ''The Gujarat government's apathy towards quake-victims is shocking. Administrative bankruptcy of the state government has led to confusion with bureaucrats making money.'' Jayantibhai P Patel, a diamond worker of Morbi in Rajkot district, one among the 14,000 homeless, alleges that bribe money worth Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000 is required to get a rebuilding grant worth Rs 90,000. Raghavjibhai Gajera, president of BJP Morbi taluka unit accepts this: ''I am aware of the corrupt practices but none of the victimised beneficiaries are ready to come out in the open.'' As in Morbi, locals of Anjar and Bhuj too talk of the pay-money syndrome to get a house shifted from G3 to the fatal G4 category and thus get a bigger grant. ''A lot of money has been siphoned off,'' says former mayor of Bhuj, Maheshbhai Thakkar. When Suman Kumar Jha, a teacher in Anjar who broke his leg in a building collapse, went to the local mamlatdar's office he found that his cheque of Rs 5,000 had been encashed by an impostor. Later, on being threatened with legal action, a fresh cheque was issued on January 5, 2002. Trials delayed In Ahmedabad, where nearly 800 persons died, only a handful of cases have reached the trial stage. In Kutch, the criminal cases are still at a preliminary stage. In Ahmedabad, 79 accused persons have been bailed out after charge-sheets were filed in all the cases, but the first trial is yet to commence. Special public prosecutor Akhil Desai, in charge of taking the cases to their logical conclusion, says, ''I am yet to receive the papers of a single case.'' A detailed investigation in almost 75 per cent of the cases is still pending. Although the police have named more than 263 accused including builders, it is still unsure whether there would be requirement for additional chargesheets.As of now, the magisterial court which commits cases for trial before the session court after scrutinising each case has found just 20 per cent of the 60 registered cases were ready for trial. But even these were yet to be listed for preliminary hearing. Delay in investigations and absence of reports of the Forensic Science Laboratories in Delhi and Hyderabad are holding back most of the cases. The courts that were to decide upon the cases had to be shifted out of the original premises because the buildings were damaged and are operating from temporary structures. Police department sources say the authorities are not very hopeful about the cases. ''The sections of culpable homicide levelled against the accused are difficult to prove,'' says a senior official. Delay in the proceedings is also due to the ongoing deliberation within the police department on the points of charges. Says Police commissioner P.C. Pandey, ''Things are really in a sad state as far as the building collapse cases are concerned. There has been absence of of coordination between the police, prosecution and the proceedings.'' The situation is worse in Kutch. According to Sudhir Sinha, DIG Border Range, of the 32 cases registered against the builders, barely two charge-sheets have been filed. (With inputs from Sourav Mukherjee)