22,000 Christian victims in the relief camps in Orrissa: shortage of clothes, milk, toilets

Communists seek better facilities in relief camps

BERHAMPUR (ICNS): The victims in the jam packed relief camps in the violence hit Kandhamal district need much more facilities, says a three-member fact finding team of Orissa unit of CPI(M) that visited the district

The team of Jagannath Mishra, Kailsah Sadangi and Judhisthir Sahu said over 22,000 Christian victims in the relief camps of the district may prefer to live in the camps as they do not feel confident to go back to their own villages after the violence anti-Christian violence.  "There were extreme shortage of clothes among victims especially women, who had to flee their villages with only clothes they had worn," said Sadangi. The state of infants up to the age of six months was pitiable as milk was not being provided at relief material for these newborns.  The physical condition of their mothers was also preventing the infants to get sufficient breast feeding. Mishra said the sanitary condition of the relief camps had deteriorated due to the rains. He commended the efforts of the administration for providing safe drinking water by tankers and using bleaching powder to disinfect the area. Despite all these efforts lack of proper number of toilets at the relief camps surely bring in the fear of gastro epidemic. Most relief camps run in schools which had limited number of toilets. People live in the rooms of the schools or the tents erected in the school field. Some makeshift toilets in tents have also been erected. But due to old habit the victims in the relief camps prefer to use the open field near it as their toilet. This has increased the threat of gastro infection in the relief camps. The team also found that LPG cylinders had not reached the kitchens of the relief camps despite claims by the Kandhamal district Civil Supplies Department and the cooking was being done by firewood.  According to the CPI(M) leaders the victims would not feel safe to return back to their homes from the relief camps as the culprits behind the rioting were roaming scot-free. They also added that the district was yet to return back to normalcy and the poor daily wagers of rural pockets were without work and income. The fact-finding team has suggested eight measures that the state Government should adopt to bring in peace in Kandhamnal district. The suggestions include, ban on any kind of religious conversion by force, ban on communal organizations, CBI enquiry into Swami Lakshmananda's murder and communal riot that followed and reconstruction of damaged religious institutions. Link