AHMEDABAD: The riots may have subsided but life continues to be a struggle for hundreds of families still living in relief camps in the city, who are defying the government''s squeeze on supplies.
The rains have only compounded the problems for these families who either don''t have any home to go back to or don''t feel it is still safe enough to return home.
The Shah-e-Alam camp has around 4,000 people, most of them without shelter from rains. Suhana Pathan, a volunteer at the camp, says: ``The people are living out in the open and when it rains, they occupy any dry place they are able to find. Even the places that are covered with plastic are giving way. Even the food becomes watery as it is cooked in the open.''''
With the rains, the threat of outbreak of epidemics has increased as the camp is ill-equipped in even providing basic medicines. ``The medicine stocks are low and we are not being provided with even the basic medicines like Paracetamol and Avil. The threat of diseases like cholera, jaundice and malaria is looming large and with no medicines, I don''t know what am I supposed to do?'''' says Mehmood Malik, camp''s dispensary in-charge.
The Aman Chowk camp in Bapunagar follows the same tale of neglect. The camp has been closed, according to the government, but the people won''t leave. ``We were forced to close the camp because of pressure but we still have some 80 families staying here. We are doing what we can and providing shelter and food on our own.''''
The camp is surrounded by gutter water. When asked about what the municipal corporation was doing about it, Sajjad Ahmed says: ``We have complained to the authorities but no action has been taken as yet. Forget medicines, we haven''t had drinking water supply for the last two days.''''
Refugees at Dariyakhan Ghummat are being provided with some assistance. The clerk at the Ghumbat camp says: ``The two days when there was quite a lot of rain, we faced a major question of how to accommodate 2,400 people. The government now seems to have taken some initiative and started building tin-roof shelters for the camp people.'''' At Juhapura, the Sonal Theatre camp also has started putting up such tin-roof shelters to protect the people from the rains.
Paul Gazala, a member of the Samarth NGO, says: ``We started building such shelters on our own by collecting funds, but now the collector has promised to help by providing us with some 300 tin-sheets.''''
Amarjeet Singh, health commissioner, on the other hand, denied the fact that the camps were lacking in hygiene and medicines. "The camps are being looked after properly by our medical teams and we carrying out our daily checks. If there is a shortage of medicines at any place, we will cover that. That will not be a problem.''''
