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Download PDF Relief efforts in the cyclone-hit districts seem to centre in areas that have been widely reported in the media while out-of-the-way places still wait to receive much-needed food and medical supplies.
People were still desperate for shelter and warm clothes as reports of children and infants contracting cold-related diseases continued to pour in yesterday, over a week after the storm tore through the south-western districts.
Hundreds of relief trucks kept coming to heavily affected areas such as Southkhali in Bagerhat’s Sharonkhola upazila where private relief providers have concentrated their activities leaving most other areas in the upazila unattended.
In Nishanbaria union of Morelganj upazila, some three thousand people rendered homeless by Cyclone Sidr have been waiting for relief at the local school ground for at least two days but to no effect as of yesterday afternoon.
“They drive past my village on their way to Southkhali. I heard thousands of people have died there, but hundreds died in our village too. We have 2,400 houses destroyed but we are not getting any aid,” said Shamsu Jamaddar in Chalranda, only two villages away from Southkhali.
Scores of people were injured while jostling for relief packets thrown from trucks and other vehicles. Those working for international relief agencies blame the messiness on inexperience of the volunteers from private organisations.
“Private organisations and companies do not seem to bother much about organising their activities in coordination with the government and non-government agencies. As a result, there has been chaos in relief distribution. Besides, they are concentrating mainly on the areas that are grabbing the headlines,” said Khulna divisional head of a major international relief agency.
“Coordination is a must to make sure the relief materials are distributed according to specific needs of an area. But what we see now is people (private donors) sending wrong sort of relief to wrong places,” he added.
Some big name companies however have been conducting their activities in coordination with local authorities and relief agencies. They are coming up with crucial supplies like food, water and medicines for the badly-affected areas.
As relief pours into villages like Southkhali that has gained substantial media attention due to its staggering death toll, areas that are hard to access and that have smaller death counts are not receiving adequate aid.
Outlying char islands, especially the ones off Golachipa and Dashmina upazila in Patuakhali are most neglected in terms of receiving relief supplies. Remote areas in Barguna and Patuakhali too are missing on the relief radar.
Warm clothes were noticeably absent from the materials being distributed. Most of the private relief packets contain some rice, lentil, and oil whereas there are hardly any utensils to cook food.
Sohrab Hossain from Patuakhali adds: Locals of Mirzaganj have alleged that there were irregularities in relief distribution. Those waiting for relief at Mirzaganj upazila headquarters Thursday staged demonstrations in protest at this.
They claimed there were scarcity of relief materials as well as lack of co-ordination.
“The union parishad (UP) member took our signatures on paper that says each of us was given 10kg rice, but in reality we got only five kg each,” said Mohammad Sultan of Vajna.
“I got myself enrolled as a relief recipient but when relief materials were distributed today [Thursday], the local UP member accused me of being an outsider and did not give me anything,” Rassel, 20, told this correspondent.
The local administration sources said non-government organisations (NGOs) are not informing them about what they are giving out as relief, so anomaly in distribution might occur.
Sources said cyclone victims in remote places were not getting anything while the areas nearer to the district headquarters were getting more than once.
Meanwhile, people have yet to have their houses rebuilt.
Individuals and different organisations including Red Crescent, Grameenphone, Warid Telecom, Save the Children, and Sammilito Sangskritik Jote Thursday distributed relief in the cyclone-affected areas in Patuakhali.
Health Adviser Major General (retd) ASM Matiur Rahman, Local Government Adviser Anwarul Iqbal and Jatiya Party Secretary General Ruhul Amin Hawlader were among those who distributed relief in the coastal district.
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