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Three years have passed since the devastating tsunami ravaged the Andaman islands in the Bay of Bengal. The islanders, whose lives were torn asunder by the wrath of the nature, are trying hard to put together the broken pieces. Simultaneously resentment is brewing in the relief camps of the island as tardy pace of rehabilitation leave the victims in makeshift camps restless and angry. Sujoy Dhar reports from Port Blair
More than three years since they lost everything to the devastating tsunami, the victims of the nature's fury in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands fight tardy rehabilitation process set in motion belatedly by the Indian government. The torn pieces of life are hard to knit, especially when they know that environmental refugees like them are not choosers in this Bay of Bengal archipelago.
So while some await impatiently for the government to finish construction of their houses for rehabilitation, many rue not being given monetary compensation instead so that they could start life afresh in their own terms.
On Dec 26, 2004, the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago suffered massive destruction when one of the fiercest tsunamis struck the islands after a severe earthquake.
At least 3,513 lives were lost officially, thousands of houses and complete villages wiped out and thousands of hectares of cultivable land were ruined, largely in Nicobar islands which was barely 107 km from Sumatra , the epicenter of the earthquake that caused the tsunami.
At Namunaghar shelter near Port Blair, 30-year-old Vijay Rani says she wants money to begin life in her own terms and not the apparently shiny houses being build by the government for them.
"Give us money instead of building houses in places where we don't want them. If they give us money we can build our houses for much less and spend the rest for starting small business," said
Vijay Rani who has two teenaged sons and depends heavily on the ration provided by the government erratically.
"I had a pan (chewing quid with betel leaf) shop near the jetty here. All was swept away by the tsunami. In the past years since the natural calamity struck us I am not doing much. I have heard that each house being constructed costs Rs 7,00,000. Why not they give a portion of the money to us so that we can build our own house and start some business," she said.
The submerged fields with decapitated tree and water-logged abandoned houses on either side of the road to Namunaghar stands testimony to the ferocity with which tsunami had struck Andaman and Nicobar Islands three years ago.
Now majority of the victims living in Namunaghar want is money to start afresh.
"They should give us money. Who asked them to build houses for us?" said 45-year-old Harichand Roy, neighbour of Vijay Rani.
However, Giriraju, a Telugu-speaking settler in the Nicobar islands who now lives in a small camp Namunagar, a house is all that would change his standard of living.
"I cannot go back to Nicobar because there non-tribals cannot settle legally anymore or enjoy the facilities. I want a house and am waiting for it impatiently. They are not yet ready," said Giriraju, who lost one of his legs in train accident earlier.
In the tsunami shelters of Andaman islands discontent is brewing even as apparently sparkly and quake-proof houses are coming up after missing several deadlines for completion.
Impatient by the delays, Umabati, a mother of two living in Bamboo Flat, an island near Port Blair, said they continued to wait for the houses.
"We are living in temporary shelters for the past 19 months. We have not yet got the houses. The hardship we face every day is immense," she said.
"It's been a long wait. The houses are being built and would be delivered soon perhaps but it took long time. Moreover, we have heard that the government would stop the ration after December," she said.
Banu, a photographer from Nicobar who is nearly jobless since tsunami destroyed his habitat forcing him to live in relief camp in Andaman.
Banu did open an unit at Bamboo Flat but there are simply no visitors to his studio.
The former resident of Lapati in Nicobar said: "I have no employment here virtually. I have college going children and only I know how each day passes."
"The houses are not delivered yet," he said.
"It is sheer laziness of the government which delayed our project. The slow progress makes us impatient. If they had wanted they could have delivered earlier," he said.
Andaman and Nicobar relief commissioner Dharam Pal admits the delay but attributes the cause to the failure of the NGOs which had overcommitted themselves.
"We are done with the relief phase. We are now in the final phase of rehabilitation- housing. We started constructing in 2006 and now almost nearing completion in 2007. The first batch is ready for handing over to the victims.
"NGOs had committed 2500 houses but they now only can deliver 709. They had overcommitted. They were given the task in south Andaman. They found it difficult to construct," Dharam Pal said.
"An NGO called KASA (which was later blacklisted by the government)- had committed 572 houses but they withdrew from the project in Car Nicobar. Then NGOs like CARE India reduced their commitment. They had committed 954 houses but now they are able to deliver only 286," Dharam Pal said.
Even an NGO like MATA reduced their commitment.
"At Bamboo Flat, CARE is now doing only 59 houses while we are developing the area with a school, hospital, community centre, etc.," he said.
"Initially there was this design problem. I think however the reason for reducing the commitment is funding part."
"The costs are high in the islands as everything has to be brought from the mainland. A cost of Rs 5,00,000 to Rs 6,00.000 can go up to Rs 11,00,000 in Car Nicobar. The average cost of the house is Rs 9,00,000," Dharam Pal said.
The relief commissioner said that by March 2008 at least 50 percent of the houses would be ready.
"In some areas the constructions might go up to Dec 2008. A total of 9797 houses are being built. Of them 7966 are by the CPWD and 11022 by APWD," he informs.
"In places like Great Nicober it is very difficult to construct since you don't even have access all the time. You have to wait for good weather conditions and go in dingy.
"The sea condition there is so rough. Moreover there is no harbour, no beach, nothing," he said.
"Delays are due to proper sanitation and electricity logistics," Dharam Pal said.
The victims have several grievances, however.
"The houses they are providing are far away from our lands. In some houses the partition between two apartments in every single unit of house is such that it could breed animosity between the two families residing in each of the two apartments of a single unit," said a tsunami victim at Namunaghar.
But Dharam Pal said such demands are impractical.
"We cannot give them money. Because they would spend the money on liquor as we have found in many families which got monetary compensation. Also this time we are building houses which are earthquake resistant," he said.
"So far privacy is concerned we have given them the choice of picking their neighbours," he said.
"We are going for planned settlement and planned settlement can happen only if it is done by the government. Also the houses have to be located at least 2 km away from the sea," Dharam Pal said.
"The ownership of the houses would also be with the government," he said.
But the housing policy has come under sharp criticism of non-governmental groups working in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
"The key is for construction to be owner – not donor-driven, involving people at all stages in the process, from choosing where they want to live, to developing designs, selecting materials, monitoring the construction and even building themselves," said Harjeet Singh, head of ActionAid's Andaman team.
ActionAid had came out with a report criticising the housing initiative in the archipelago.
But Dharam Pal slams ActionAid for their negative campaign.
"The NGO is more interested in inciting the people. They provided misleading and wrong information to the international media. ActionAid has played a very destructive role here by feeding wrong information," Dharam Pal said.
Andaman's noted tribal expert Samir Acharya, who runs the NGO Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (SANE) and acts as the spokesman of the Nicobarese community, is critical of the government policy as well.
"Any fool can say that the construction is delayed. Ideally they should not have built
70 percent of the houses.
"If you go by records you will find Nicobar houses were inherently earthquake resistant. They get 100 earthquakes every year but because of low density of population there was never too much human loss," he said.
"In Camoti island of Nicobar I had sent a national channel TV crew and they got footage of a lady actually pulling her house to make it upright after it tilted in a quake.
"The mindset of settlers in Andamans and the aborigines are different. The tribals have accumulated wisdom," he said.
"Now the question is did the Nicobarese ask for the houses? They had only asked for tools so that they could build their own house," he said.
"The houses we are building have been vetted by IIT Chennai. Also remember that the tribal population in Andaman is only 8 percent of the population.
"The houses we are building here is like a model for India," he said.
As the government and NGOs spar over the relief and rehabilitation measures, the victims in Andamans continued to live in the camps trying to piece together torn pieces of life torn asunder by tsunami.
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