A stone's throw from Kandla, Gandhidham never got vital equipment

A stone's throw from Kandla, Gandhidham never got vital equipment
AJAY SURI

GANDHIDHAM, FEB 2: The official machinery's zeal to reach Bhuj -- inarguably the most devastated place in the region -- has cost this coastal town dear. Over a 1,000 people have died here, many of them breathing their last in the debris during past 48 hours simply because Kandla Port Trust (KPT) authorities rushed their entire equipment (bulldozers, forklifts, dumpers and all) to Bhuj, somehow forgetting Gandhidham which lies a stone's throw away.

No wonder the survivors of Gandhidham are bursting with anger. Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had a tough time with crowds when he visited Gandhidham for the first time after the quake.

Even KPT chairman A.K. Jyoti admitted the lapse of ignoring Gandhidham. ``All port equipment has been deployed for rescue operations,'' he held but when prodded, admitted that almost all of it has indeed gone to Bhuj. Virtually nothing has been utilised for Gandhidham.

Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel too arrived in Gandhidham only this morning. He too was mobbed by protestors. B.K.Mansukhani, owner of Rishi Shipping, was the most vocal of the lot. ``I had 56 equipment, mainly excavators and bulldozers. Forty of these were snatched by the police the day of the earthquake and diverted to Anjar and Bhuj,'' he tells Advani and Keshubhai. ``It's not that we do not wish well for the people of those towns. But it's sheer callousness for the people of Gandhidham that foxes me. Their lives could have been saved, but wasn't,'' Mansukhani bemoans.

In Gandhidham, by and large an affluent city where people have made big money mainly due to their proximity with nearby Kandla free trade zone, relief is the last thing on their minds. They want bulldozers and not blankets, Advani and Keshubhai were told.

Also, the quake has hit Gandhidhma a bit differently than Bhuj. Most of the multi-storiyed buildings, instead of falling sideways, have sunk inside the ground -- mainly due to the soft and saline coastal soil. As a result, entire floors have been swallowed up by the ground. But nobody lives even in the spacious bungalows of Gandhidham anymore. Many have fled to Mumbai and other places while the remaining have pitched tents outside their houses.

The Tolani Polytechnic Hostel building tells the story of Gandhidham at one glance. Housing some 200 hostlers, twisted rubble is all that is left of the vast building. Thirty-three bodies -- 26 of them students -- have already been pulled out, but as most of the debris still remains untouched, nobody knows how many more are still buried inside.

At the Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce building -- also located in an upmarket area -- the Army is busy ferreting out bodies from the rubble. The search for live victims is lost in the stench of death that pervades the air. But the personnel feel stranded due to acute shortage of equipment.

Advani, after visiting Gandhidham, Anjar, Bhuj and Rapar, admitted that there was now little hope of finding any more survivors and the government would now have to concentrate on its second phase of relief -- that of providing shelters to lakhs of homeless survivors. ``In fact, the entire Kutch area has to be built afresh. There is no other way.''

Advani hopes that the ``new Kutch'' will give the government and its people an opportunity to do something wonderful with the region, as they had done in Morvi and Surat. Morvi, in the post-flood period, emerged as a town of considerable importance and economic power, as did Surat after the plague exodus.