Gurdaspur lends a helping hand to Gandhidham

Gurdaspur lends a helping hand to Gandhidham
D V Maheswhari

BHUJ, FEB 19: If you are a quake-hit person with no roof over your head and in search of a decent shelter, then the one set up by the people of Gurdaspur, Punjab, at the port-town of Gandhidham under the supervision of film actor Vinod Khanna is not a bad place to live in.

``We have erected 200 double large tents to provide shelter to 180 families who have lost their house in the Republic Day quake and have started registering names of accommodation seekers,'' Khanna told The Indian Express recently.

The tents have been pitched in an orderly manner on three to four acres of municipal land in the heart of the port-town. The boundary is made of tin sheets and is guarded by security personnel with entry only to genuine visitors. The tents are of good quality, clean and some of them have cots. A make-shift modern hospital is coming up in the premises. So is a school and a vocational training and guidance centre. And Khanna greets every new visitor personally.

``Yadi hame insano ko insano ke tarah rakhana hain aur unhe jald normal banana hain to yeh basic familities dena jaruri hain

(If we want humans to live like humans in a decent way and make them quickly return to normal life, these basic amenities and facilities are a must),'' Khanna, sitting outside his tent, said.

The film actor of yesteryears, Khanna has, in fact, been camping at Gandhidham for the past 13 days. ``I first stayed at the KPT guest house at Gopalpuri, but then shifted to one of the tents in the camp when the guest house was in great demand because of frequent visits of Union Ministers,'' Khanna said. ``The tent you see behind me is both my office-cum-residence,'' he added.

Khanna clarifies that he is not here for distribution of any relief material, but to provide a decent place to live to the homeless till alternative arrangements are made by the Government. He said those living in the camp would also be provided food during their stay here.

When asked why he chose Gandhidham when there were other worse-affected towns in Kutch, Khanna said he visited Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau and found that these towns were being taken care of while there was little relief work in Gandhidham.

He said many middle-class residents whose homes had collapsed or been declared unsafe were shy of seeking help and, therefore, he had decided to set up a camp with all facilities for them. Khanna said a number of such people had already registered their names and they would be given admission in the next few days when the ongoing sanitation work was over.

The Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur said Kutch looked as if ``it had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb.'' He said the most surprising thing he noticed here was that though the people were in great distress, they showed exemplary courage and always greeted one with a smiling face.

He said when he visited Tapper which supplied water to the port-town and which had been totally razed to the ground, he found two vacant tents. He said when he asked the villagers the reason for this, they told him that the tents were kept vacant for guests. He said he could not believe that those in so much trouble thought of their guests first.