Ahmedabad, March 21 :
Ahmedabad, March 21:
For nearly three weeks since riots ravaged Ahmedabad, officials of the BJP's Narendra Modi administration barely recognised the existence of the relief camp at Sha-e-Alam dargah, the city's biggest.
Then, on Tuesday night, things got moving. A cheque for Rs 2.25 lakh arrived, two large tents were put up on the dargah premises where around 9,000 riot victims, many from Naroda where 67 people were burnt to death in a minority-dominated slum, have taken shelter.
This is home minister L.K. Advani's constituency, which is home now to six relief camps sheltering over 20,000 riot victims. What stirred the administration into action was the impending visit of a team from the National Human Rights Commission that came yesterday.
The rights panel has rejected a Gujarat government report on the riots as 'perfunctory' and sought a more comprehensive one in the next few days. 'The situation in the state is far from normal, there is a sense of insecurity among the people,' commission head Justice J.S. Verma said.
With reports of stray violence coming in almost every day - six people were stabbed in Ahmedabad even today and one died in police firing - no one at the camp wants to return to what were once their homes and pick up the threads of their devastated lives.
In the biggest incident of arson since February 28, which is being seen as an attempt to avenge the Naroda killings, about 100 shops owned by members of one community were set on fire today. Indefinite curfew was clamped on two areas after the rioting.
Safibhai Memon, one of the organisers of the camp, pleads helplessness when confronted with the question of rehabilitating the riot victims. 'Probably,' he said, 'we will ask the government to give a written assurance that they will be safe when they go back.'
But he also admits that not many will trust the government and the police. Memon is looking for a piece of land where all
refugees can be temporarily
settled.
Sajid Malek, a victim, whenever asked what he planned to do with his life would only say that he would return, but only to sell whatever is left of his property. And, thereafter, silence.
Rehabilitation will have to wait. Before that, women and children - traumatised by violence - need medical care and counselling, which they are yet to get. Some NGOs have decided to send their trained counsellors to the camps from Monday.
Arju, a student of class X, is so disturbed she has told her parents she would not be able to write her examination, even though she has more than 45 days to prepare for it.
Over 50 students of classes X and XII, whose books were
reduced to cinder along with the rest of the belongings of their families, were provided with the full kit a week ago by an NGO.
Yet, Rafi Malek, a volunteer working at the camp, said he was not sure how many of these students would finally write their examinations.
There are hundreds of other children in lower classes whose future is as uncertain. 'Maybe they will get mass promotion. This will not be unusual. Last year after the quake, the state government had given mass promotion,' said Malek.
Any effort to get the victims back to normal life must start with payment of compensation, but that is not going to happen
in a hurry because first the
damaged properties have to
surveyed.