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| Jagati Camp: Living in uncertainty | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 2: When the columns of this paper raised certain questions about the safety of the entire construction at Jagati it was only an understatement. The danger of the cracks appearing in the roofs and walls, plaster falling down suddenly, seepage of bathroom water into living room and short circuits were not apprehensions but imminent threats which the inmates of the camp may encounter daily.
Only a few days back the plaster of a quarter in blocks 86 came crumbling down. For the residents it was an "earthquake like experience". Imagine the roof over your head suddenly coming down. Since then, they have been living in "constant fear, particularly during the night". May be the roof slab comes down, may be the beam collapses? A few months back the gallery of block 167 came down. Cracks have appeared almost in all quarters. The government has chosen to underplay it. Why?
The then Relief Commissioner maintained stoic silence when the columns of this paper asked whether proper steel and construction material was used in the construction work. Reports that a "substandard and under gauge steel" was used gave this correspondent sleepless night. But the government had full sleep confident that nothing of the sort will happen. The minister-in-charge of relief and rehabilitation was asked by the community leaders to "assure the people at least about the safety of the construction at Jagati". No such assurance has come so far. The questions asked by this paper are yet to be answered.
With summer setting in "we will soon have foul smelling overflowing soakage pits," say some dwellers. Last year, the disease could not take hold of the camp perhaps because the inmates have had some acquired immunity. Will they be strong enough this year? "Nothing", according to many frightened inmates, "moves in relief department except open and veiled threats, new verification orders, and remonstrations". After all they are living in a township which Ghulam Nabi Azad promised them and the concerned minister delivered it to them.
In the medical dispensary, there till recently were sanitary pipes coming out of bathrooms and lavatories going into soakage pits which were yet to be dug or only half dug. Construction engineers had hastily put the lids of the pits in place to give an impression that the whole work was complete. One of the employees was surprised with the back flow of water through the sanitary pipes into the lavatory. He went out to find out what was wrong. And when he lifted the lid of the soakage pit there was no pit below only a small make shift trench.
There is some apprehension amongst the employees of the relief organization after the vigilance notice to the former relief commissioner. Where will the entire matter end? The transfer of the relief commissioner despite the public endorsement of his work by none other than the concerned minister has sent shock waves. Some hope the matter may now end up here and the Relief Commissioner was transferred precisely to set the simmering doubts to rest. But given the state of affairs at Jagati the matter may have just started and now it may not be long time before the minister may have to answer questions, a plethora of them to clear the winds. In the meantime, many in the camp are thinking in terms of demanding a high level inquiry to look into what went wrong. |
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