http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4648895.stm


Andaman tsunami relief criticised

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Port Blair



Former farmland, ruined by sea water, is being sold
With barely half a million inhabitants, India's Andaman and Nicobar
Islands are flush with federal funds to rehabilitate tsunami victims.

But in village after village, people complain they have been given no real
help - or have received derisory amounts of compensation.

Much of the nearly one billion rupees of federal aid is being spent on
controversial projects - like constructing mud sea walls that opponents say
cannot keep out huge waves.

Temporary shelters for people made homeless by the tsunami are a case in
point.

Some contractor in Delhi will make a lot of money but we can't stay
in these houses

Subendhu Das
Bengali settler

The authorities say they have finished building 10,000 such structures.

But the islanders living in them complain they are too hot because they
are made of tin.

"We go and sleep in the jungles when the tin sheds get too hot by mid-day.
We return only after sunset," says Michael, a Nicobarese tribal chief from the
Katchall islands.

Subendhu Das, a Bengali settler at Hut Bay in the Little Andamans, agrees:
"Some contractor in Delhi will make a lot of money but we can't stay in these
houses."

Poor quality

The temporary shelters also don't have any floors, so when it rains they
become muddy.



People say the tin sheds are too hot

Hundreds of Nicobarese tribespeople and Bengali or Tamil settlers in the
islands say the shelters were not needed.

"We had asked for tools like saws, chisels, hammers, nails and axes.

"And we needed permission to use the large number of trees that had fallen
during the tsunami," says Rashid Yusuf of the Nicobarese Tribal Youth
Association.

"If the government gave us the tools and the timber, we would have
constructed our own traditional eco-friendly houses that are comfortable in the
hot and humid local conditions."

Lack of planning

Mr Yusuf says the tin sheds now housing the homeless - built away from the
sea on high ground - will not withstand heavy rain or cyclones.



He says the administration should give up its plans to use pre-fabricated
metal structures as permanent shelters.

"That will be uninhabitable. We will only keep our pigs in those
shelters."

The local administration has not yet planned permanent homes for the
homeless people. And there's no plan to restore livelihoods.

"That may take two years," said a local official who was not willing to be
named.

Some residents have gone to court to try to stop the mud sea walls being
built. They say the walls will stop rain water from washing salt off farmland
which was deluged by sea water during the tsunami.


At Wandoor, a favourite fishing village and tourist resort about 40km (25
miles) from Port Blair, hundreds of fishermen say they have no boats to get back
to the sea.

"Some of us got 10,000 rupees ($232) for the boats. But a fishing boat
takes 10 times that much money to build," says Nitai Biswas of Wandoor.

Victims 'ignored'

Tourist guide Amit Bala and hotelier Babul Sardar are working as
construction workers on roads now being repaired by NGOs like World Vision.

"The tourists don't come anymore, so I have no work and I don't know when
I will have some work. This work on roads will not last long," said Mr Bala.


Fishermen cannot afford to go back to sea


A team of engineers from the Indian Institute of Technology has described
construction work in the islands as "generally sub-standard and poor quality".

A bridge connecting North Andamans with Middle Andamans collapsed after
the December earthquake and remains unusable.

A ship purchased by the local administration, remains unusable because of
technical problems.

Campaigners want the authorities to monitor the way post-tsunami
rehabilitation funds are being spent in the Andamans.

"A lot of corrupt officials and contractors are making a lot of money, but
the victims of tsunami are crying in wilderness" says Samir Acharya of the
Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (SANE).


Debi Goenka

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