Supplies still elude survivors

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Nov 21 (bdprem.com) – Six days after Sidr slammed into the southern districts, the survivors are yet to see any coordinated relief programme take off, says bdprem.com correspondent Polash who has been combing the desolate coasts for the past five days. The administration mostly appeared busy drawing up long lists of all categories of the affected only, said the bdpre.com correspondent Wednesday. The government officials, however, claimed that relief operations were being carried out on a war footing. Abu Nayeem Muhammad Abdus Sabur, upazila nirbahi officer of Amtoli, said they had despatched adequate relief out to the ravaged areas and that the distribution was also ongoing. But such claims proved far from true when the correspondent went to Barobagia, the worst-hit area under the upazila. None from the government looked up one Abdul Khaleque's family there, who lost 11 of his family members. Md Nesaruddin, Khaleque's neighbour, said they had received no relief at all though residents of the neighbouring village got 1.5 kg rice per family once in the past days. Shah Alam Chowkidar from the neighbouring village Mourari said he prepared and deposited the list of the affected for his union at the Union Parishad office, but no government relief had so far reached any of the families there. The casualties stood at 47 and some 12 people were still missing; all the families were affected, he said. Maruf Raihan, a local NGO worker, said despite being one of the worst-hit localities, they had not yet received any help from the government. Md Manjurul Hasan, social welfare officer in Amtoli, said as the communications system broke down it was a formidable challenge to reach the affected areas when trawlers had all been ruined or grounded during the cyclone. Excepting the Upazila headquarters, Galachipa people living on the outskirts had received no food or medicine until now, the correspondent reported from the scene. He added that some NGOs and local enthusiasts had only started distributing some relief materials after collecting them locally, which were too little too less compared with the needs. Shubhash Chandra Mali, a resident of Amtoli Sadar Upazila, was collecting medicine from the local representatives of pharmaceutical companies and distributing them among the needy. Mali too said, "We have been with the affected since the storm, we haven't seen any government personnel arriving with any relief so far."