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Tsunami: The ground beneath the waves
Colin Gonsalves
Forget the crocodile
tears. Two years after the tsunami, the homeless survivors look for
straws of hope in the once pristine and now devastated islands of
Andaman and Nicobar. All they discover is that they have been
brutally betrayed by a nexus of corrup
It has been almost two years since the
Tsunami washed over the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and destroyed the
homes and livelihoods of its residents. Although the government made
a lot of promises, and has spent a lot of taxpayer’s money, very
little actual relief and rehabilitation work has been done. Most
islanders are still waiting for compensation. The shabby temporary
housing built in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami has not been
replaced by permanent housing. Instead of ensuring that people are
able to return to farming or fishing or trade, the islands’ economy
is being parcelled out to vested interests from the mainland. The
environmental degradation is reaching crisis proportions. This is a
summary of the relief and rehabilitation situation in the Andaman &
Nicobar (A&N) Islands: the hard realism of truth behind the rhetoric
of illusions and lies.
Thousands have been left out of various compensation packages. A
close scrutiny reflects a discriminatory trend. Traditional boats,
cultivation on unlicensed land, and shopkeepers are the worst hit.
The administration has not taken adequate steps to communicate to
the people their entitlements and the procedure to be followed
thereto. This has aided rampant corruption.
Tsunami-affected families in the islands face discrimination in the
distribution of ex-gratia relief. Such entrenched discrimination is
transparently visible in the enumeration process where a large
number of families have been systematically left out of the
compensation schemes, and in cases where families have been provided
wholly inadequate amounts of compensation.
While the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Package’ lays out what losses
will be compensated, the local administration has chosen to minimise
the scope of the package by interpreting the scheme in a manner that
excludes the most vulnerable and powerless. For instance, those
cultivating unlicensed land have not been compensated, the
fisherfolk with traditional or unlicensed boats have been excluded
from the package, and local shopkeepers have been largely left out
of the compensation process.
The implementation of the package violates the equal treatment
guarantee of Article 14 of the Constitution because of two reasons:
first, the process of identification of ex-gratia relief to all
those affected, and second, the amounts sanctioned are not
distributed proportionately among
 the various constituents. For
instance, fisherfolk and farmers have been compensated in lakhs of
rupees, but shopkeepers have been provided with a relief of only Rs
10,000.
In the Nicobars, there is an apparent discrepancy in the figures of
the dead and missing. Compensation for family members who are
missing or dead has not been completed to date. Instead of solving
the problem, the administration takes refuge in the various
guidelines from the Centre, compliance with which causes innumerable
delays.
Field assessments done by the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) and
others peg the number of families who have been excluded from the
list of beneficiaries for shelter as being between 2000 to 3,000.
The A&N administration feigns helplessness, claiming that the matter
has been closed by the Centre.
Although most of the approximately 10,000 families affected by the
tsunami have been provided temporary housing, such housing is
generally no more than a tin shed. These sheds are most
inappropriate for a hot tropical climate since their interiors
become extremely hot and it is impossible for people to stay inside,
especially during daytime when the sun is at its peak. Many of these
sheds even lack flooring, making them unliveable when sludge and mud
enters the houses during monsoon.
Now a new disaster is brewing, this one systematically man-made.
Undoubtedly, this new crisis is being caused by the administration
and by some individuals and lobbies in Delhi who have unilaterally
decided that prefabricated tubular steel frames together with
engineered bamboo flooring is the best functional alternative for
the people of the islands. The islands will be saturated with 10,000
such structures.
Experts such as Integrated Design (INDE) strongly recommended that
tribals be given tools and wood to build their traditional
structures which are earthquake resistant and easily maintained.
Moreover, such structures do not require large movements of men and
material from Chennai and Kolkata to Port Blair, and from there to
the islands. The immense expenditure involved in such movement is a
very strong argument against the non-traditional structures being
promoted by certain quarters with vested interests
Impact on children is severe. Children are not receiving the
systematic attention they deserve. Assessment of agricultural losses
in many
 areas has been inaccurate and misleading. In most toilets
electrical connections are missing. Toilets that have been built are
poorly constructed and often lying unused. People have to largely
fend for themselves when it comes to health services. Schools were
not constructed in many areas. Them temporary shelters were like
toasters. The heat inside was unbearable. Flooring did not exist in
many shelters. People complained of corruption with contractors. The
situation in the monsoon was unbearable as rainwater entered the
shelters and the slush made these entirely uninhabitable.
Peaceful protests:
On November 2, 2006, a memorandum of objections on the issue of
location, design and structure of the permanent shelters was
submitted by the tsunami-affected population to the administration.
The memorandum requested a hearing from the concerned authorities,
failing which, the affected populace said, they would have to resort
to a peaceful protest. With no assurances forthcoming from any
quarter, the tsunami victims took out a silent march on November 9.
This was followed by a full day sit-in and bundh on November 15.
This peaceful process turned nasty when the police and paramilitary
forces attacked the protestors. In any case, the lathicharge by the
police on peaceful protestors was jarring in the first instance, in
the context of the devastated islands of death, homelessness and
suffering; but this was made worse when the police forcibly entered
the hospital and beat up the injured and their relatives.
The multinational tourism industry and the mining lobby appear to
have total control of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, and of
the Andaman and Nicobar administration at the highest level. Laws
and regulations meant to protect the environment are sabotaged or
subverted to permit effectively unregulated mining, tourism and
commercial activities. The reasoning, if there is any, behind the
recent decision of the administration to open up 40 highly
vulnerable islands to tourism is being kept secret. Only top
administration officials and the hotel industry know what is going
to be the fate of these islands. One has to wonder why.
High levels of malnutrition, including severe malnutrition, exist in
the islands. Yet, the administration proposes to discontinue free
rations. This, together with the absence of livelihood options,
indicates that the decision to discontinue free rations will have a
catastrophic effect, especially in a context when malnutrition
already exists. Even the provision of kerosene has been discontinued
in several areas.
As for the administration’s decision to stop free rations by March
2007, an assessment of the food security in the islands is
particularly important.
 A major grievance of virtually all islanders we talked to was that
kerosene has been discontinued. Kerosene is needed not only for
cooking but also for lighting at night. The entitlement of a
tsunami-affected family is 200ml/person/day, that is, 30 litres
every month for a family of five. This must be restarted.
The mid-day meal in most schools is run contrary to the directive of
the Supreme Court. There is minimal variation in the food provided;
contractors who provide cooked food to the schools maintain that it
is impossible to do more within the budget.
Forty islands with a fragile ecosystem, particularly after the
tsunami, are to be opened up for tourism. It is craftily packaged as
eco-tourism. But for the vulnerable islands — this means doom.
Corruption
individuals report regularly in the local newspapers as well as
widespread corruption in the use of tsunami funds. Audits of the
expenses related to the tsunami are supposed to be done by the
Auditor General at Chennai. Such audit reports should be made
public. Further continuing audits should be conducted in a
participatory manner.
Victims often complain that they managed to get compensation only
after the payment of bribes. They allege, and provide evidence to
the effect, that those who were ineligible were given compensation
or disproportionate compensation and those who were eligible but who
could not pay bribes, were not paid compensation or given a lesser
amount of compensation.
There is no way for a NGO to verify the truth of the repeated
allegations regarding corruption. But the fact that these are made
on such a large scale by the newspapers and individuals is reason
enough for an independent inquiry.
The Comptroller and Auditor General had asked the Auditor General at
Chennai to enquire into the use of tsunami funds. This report if
ready ought to be made public.
The rehabilitation package circular dated 24/02/05 gives the
affected the right to information, and in particular the right to
the government list of beneficiaries with full details regarding the
relief distributed. This was to be made available in panchayats and
municipalities and the consolidated list was to be displayed at the
block and taluka level. But, to date, this data is not even
available on the government's website, except in selected bits and
pieces. Nearly two years after the circular, this information is
treated as top secret. Why? Who is being protected?
(The author is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India)
24 January 2007
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