A day after the Centre cleared Rs 1,000 crore in budgetary allocation for Aila aid in West Bengal, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) too has demanded a minimum Rs 1,000 crore for relief in Darjeeling, which was hit badly by the cyclone.

Even as the relief work has started in the affected areas of South and North 24-Parganas, the GJM leadership claimed the state government has left out Darjeeling, where as per official records, 425 villages were affected and 95,000 people were left homeless. The record states that the estimated value of crop affected in the district is worth Rs 45 crore and 17,000 houses were destroyed.

“Earlier, we had asked the Chief Minister to send a portion of the relief fund to us., but to no avail. The relief work has hardly started in the district. Very few relief camps were set up by the district administration. The distribution of relief was so poor that people left the camps and took shelter in other places,” said GJM spokesperson Roshan Giri.

The state’s report on the status of Aila relief work in the district says 52 relief camps and 10 medical camps were set up there. Darjeeling district magistrate Surendranath Gupta refused to comment, saying he has to check how funds were disbursed for the relief work.

On the other hand, the relief work in the Sunderbans is sluggish. There are several interior locations, including Kumirmari, Dayapur, Lahiripur and G plot in Patharpratima where the relief-distribution is yet to start properly.

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