People's Democracy

IN WEST BENGAL

THE CPI(M) West Bengal state committee has begun relief mobilisation in a big way in the state. It has started to mobilise help for the victims of the natural disaster that hit several parts of the coastal regions of the country.  The state secretariat of the CPI(M) has issued a call for the mobilisation of help in a big way through mass collections and a massive drive has begun. At the time of writing this report Rs 10 lakh has been collected through mass collections.

The state committee has donated Rs 5 lakh and sent two MPs alon with a team of four doctors to help the relief work being conducted by the Tamil Nadu state committee. It has also given Rs 2 lakh for Andaman & Nicobar organising committee. Party state secretariat member and minister in the Left Front government, Gautam Deb has been sent to Andaman and Nicobar Islands for relief work. He is stationed at Portblair and had several meetings with Lt. Governor of the Islands and several officials. He is also co-ordinating the relief work between the two governments. Moreover, he is organising and co-ordinating Party, CITU and other mass organisations to conduct relief work. Lot of relief material, particularly medicines, baby food, biscuits etc were being sent by the Party to the Islands, which will be followed by a larger contingent of food, clothes etc.

The Party state centre has constituted a team to conduct day-to-day work relating to organising relief from the Party centre.

On December 27, the Howrah district unit of the CPI(M) handed over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to state secretary, Anil Biswas who also received Rs 10,000 from the reception committee of the Howrah district conference of the CPI(M) as aid for the victims of the recent natural disaster. The day also saw various mass organisations like the SFI, the DYFI, and the School Teachers’ Federation of India (STFI) issue calls for the collection of assistance for the victims of the tsunami.

In a statement, Anil Biswas said that the natural disaster affected large parts of the coastal regions of the country especially Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Thousands of people have lost their lives.  Thousands more have lost their hearth and home. The majority of the people affected belonged to the poorer sections of the society eking out a living in the coastal areas.

The union government has already launched an effort to come to the help of the affected people.  The CPI(M) with its limited capability and resources would like to assist the stricken people.

State president of the SFI, Sudip Sengupta has declared that the SFI has started its mass collection for the relief of the disaster-struck victims on and from December 28.  Since colleges are closed for the brief winter recess, collection from amongst them would be held on January 3 and 4. An appeal would also be made to the teachers and the educational employees to contribute as best as they can.

The state leadership of the SFI has already started discussions on the matter of relief collection with its central body. The college and the local units of the SFI have been asked to deposit their collections by January 6.  Various students unions of colleges and universities have been requested by the SFI to contribute to the collection. The amount collected would be handed over to the Bengal chief minister’s relief fund. It is being probed whether a team of medical students as well as a representation of the students could be organised and sent to the disaster struck areas. 

The DYFI has come forward to stand by the side of the victims of the tsunami.  The state committee of the organisation has expressed its condolences for those killed and sympathy for the families of the victims. 

In a statement, Asitanga Gangopadhyay and Abdul Hai, secretary and president, respectively, of the state DYFI has asked the DYFI units at various levels to organise mass collection between December 29 and December 31, as well as on January 2 and 3.  The amount collected would be sent to the affected people of the disaster-hit regions.

The STFI has exhorted upon teachers and educational employees to extend their help to the disaster-affected people.  In a statement, it has asked its Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, and Tamil Nadu units to stand by the affected people in their respective states. Other units have been asked to send out relief to one or more states as much as they can.

BENGAL LF GIVES NEARLY RS 2 CRORE

NEARLY Rs 2 crore worth of relief material has been sent out from Bengal under the aegis of the state Left Front government on December 28.  The Bengal LF government has also decided to provide disaster management training to young men and women of the state.

Briefing newspersons in Kolkata at the Writers’ Buildings, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that the relief material whose monetary worth and value would stand at Rs 1.85 crore include clothing, tarpaulin sheets, blankets, and a variety of medicinal supplies.

The relief material package sent out includes 26,261 dhotis, 47,895 saris, 13,692 lungis, 33,405 children’s dresses, 15,269 blankets, and 10,000 tarpaulin sheets.  The medicines sent out include supplies of paracetamol, decadron, ORS, halazone, and various antibiotics and antiseptic medicines.

Elsewhere, the state LF government has urgently asked all tourists in the coastal resorts of Bengal, including the popular Digha and Bakkhali tourist spots, to come immediately back since a 48-hour warning for cyclones and oceanic disturbances continue to be operative.  The state government is also considering taking expert help from countries like Japan, which have experiences of natural disasters like earthquakes and cyclones.

The state government’s civil defence department has announced plans to impart disaster management education and training to young men and women.  165 blocks of the state have been declared prone to natural disaster.  In each block, 40 young men and women under the age of 35, having at least passed Class XI would be selected based on certain criteria.  These include physical fitness, and the ability to swim and cycle.  One-third of those selected for training would be women.

The syllabus includes topics such as: landslide, inundation, flood, cyclone, industrial area disaster, and earthquake.  Speciality focus of the training schedule will be determined by the characteristics of the terrain and geography as well as by the type of human activity going in different regions of the province.  Darjeeling has been tagged with landslides; industrial disaster has been associated with Haldia, plus the Asansol-Durgapur belt, while Nadia and north 24 Parganas have been marked for floods and inundations. 

Expert help might be mobilised from Bangladesh in imparting training for flood management.  The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute will impart training in managing landslides and organising rescue.  An outline of the training programme will be drawn up within a fortnight.

B Prasant