Was Gujarat prepared?

Veteran BJP Murli Manohar Joshi, who went to the flood-affected villages, lambasted Vaghela for his failure in attending to the crisis and thereby compounding the miseries of the helpless millions. Joshi also ridiculed the State Government’s estimate of losses (Rs 550 crore) saying that in Mehsana district alone, the loss would be more than Rs 500 crore. He demanded central assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for the relief and rehabilitation work.

The State Government, however, claimed that relief and rescue operations were taking place on a war footing with 1,500 army men and six Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters assisting the local authorities. Helicopters were airborne for about 50 hours and did 60 sorties dropping 23 tonnes of food packets and others essentials and carrying people to safer places.

Authorities claim that nearly 50,000 people have been evacuated in the past seven days.

Vaghela stoutly refuted Joshi’s charges, maintaining that the Government was not caught napping. “We had prepared our flood control plan much in advance and all the district collectors were informed about the detailed plan.” The plan was put into action immediately and as soon the warning of heavy rains was flashed, all the identified districts were alerted, he said.

Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue, G. Subba Rao argued that most of the affected areas had poor drainage, therefore they could not take the heavy downpour.

But BJP’s former Minister for Narmada Affairs and an MLA from Sidhpur, Jaynarayan Vyas, has charged the Government with criminal negligence’ and said that these tales of efforts and food dropping by helicopters were just a concocted story as flood affected people in Visnagar, Vijapur, Unhja, Sidhpur and Chanasma had received no help. He challenged the Chief Minister to clarify why the Government could not release any photograph of armymen helping the flood-affected people? He says that it was because there was no Army for the first four days of flood fury and when Army assistance reached there, everything was over.

A senior official handling the relief and rescue operation told The Indian Express that no amount of planning could have averted the tragedy because the villages affected by flood are on the downward side of slope from Mehsana towards the Rann of Kutchh. The heavy rains in that region led to the accumulation of water in the low lying villages and since all the neighbouring villages were receiving heavy rains, the water could not recede. Sami village recived 20 inches of water in just 48 hours while other villages and towns got more than their annual quota of rains in these two days. For inhstance, Kalol received 100 per cent rain, Patan (seat of North Gujarat University) 175 per cent, Vijapur 85 per cent, Sidhpur 144 per cent and Harij 114 per cent.

All the roads were cut off and later electric supply was also suspended. Telecommunication was affected. This created a panic situation in these flood-ravaged areas. The administration in these towns and villages also panicked and did not know what to do in a situation for which they were not trained to tackle. A senior officer admitted that for the first few days, there was no way to reach these areas, therefore, the help of IAF choppers was sought for dropping food packets.

The lack of a ground-level cadre in the ruling Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) also compounded the misery. The committed cadre of the BJP and VHP, on the other hand, had done a commendable job during such crises in the past.

Absence of ground-level apparatus of the RJP left people on their own.And it would also be wrong to presume that the administration had no inkling of bad times ahead as the most ominous indication had come on June 23 when of all places, the desert district of Bhuj reported very heavy rainfall which led to the burst of a check dam near Lodhai village marooning more than 50 houses and sweeping away large number of livestock. But it went unnoticed by the authorities in Gandhinagar. They, unfortunately, were busy preparing an action plan on paper, rather than getting on their feet to tackle the first fury of a hyperactive monsoon. With 18 more deaths being reported from across the State, the rain toll has gone up to 208. Of these, 167 were confirmed dead and 41 were feared dead. While compensation of about Rs 7 lakh was paid to the families of the 40 deceased, doles of Rs 48 lakh were distributed among 9,111 persons.

An official statement said that of the deaths reported from various districts, 40 were in Mehsana, 15 in Ahmedabad, 13 in Sabarkantha and 11 in Kheda, while 70 deaths were reported from the rest of the State. It said 25 persons were missing in floods in Gandhinagar, seven in Ahmedabad, five in Mehsana and six in other districts.

Officials claim the relief and rescue operations are in full swing with over 1.50 lakh food packets having been distributed by the Government. But there is more to the unfortunate story: The mismanagement had created tension between two communities in Mehsana district, leading to the death of four persons and seven injured in Kukas village of Mehsana district. The clash between the two communities ensued over distribution of cash assistance. Three shops and some vehicles were set on fire by the mob. Out of fear, more than two dozen families of a community have fled from the village and took shelter in Mehsana town.

Though the Chief Minister was putting up a brave front, he realised that his administrative machinery, specially the Information department had miserably failed. Millions of helpless people all over the State were looking towards the administration with expectations but were deprived of actual report of the situation. The media was also shocked by the lack of information flow from the information department which was responsible for the negative publicity for the Government.