Patel presents plan to rebuild Gujarat

After the Gujarat earthquake, India will soon have its fast response teams equipped with sniffer dogs and sensor teams as well as earthmovers and gas cutters. This was decided at the preliminary meeting of the National Disaster Management Group (NDMG), instituted by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first step towards preparing a blueprint to rehabilitate Gujarat and more importantly, tackling other calamities in the future.

The 37-member group that has on board senior cabinet ministers and leaders of opposition parties like Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, decided yesterday that a force modelled on the lines of the Swiss and Turkish rescue teams would be positioned in each state capital, ready to fly out and deal with any emergency.

Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who was in the capital yesterday for the first time since the January 26 earthquake, was part of the meeting to present his plans to rebuild his ravaged state. The first formal meeting of the NDMG is scheduled for Sunday where it is expected to consider several short and long-term measures to rehabilitate and reconstruct earthquake devastated Gujarat.

Later Patel addressed a press conference at the BJP central office where he stoutly denied allegations that the state authorities were slow to react to the earthquake. He gave details of how his government was able to restore electricity and power supply to all quake-affected areas within four days of devastation. He said that over 1,100 cranes, 540 bulldozers and nearly 3,000 loaders and dumpers were deployed during the rescue operations, which he said is costing the state nearly Rs20 million per day.

A major chunk of the relief for the unfortunate victims of last month's earthquake that devastated the state of Gujarat has so far been received from foreign countries. Patel said, adding, foreign countries have so far contributed Rs5 billion out of Rs9.5 billion received by the state so far. Patel has won a reprieve with his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday refusing to replace him as the state chief minister in wake of allegations of tardy rescue and relief operation in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Counting the cost of the damage, Patel said the state would require approximately Rs200 billion to rehabilitate the 16 million affected people of the state. He said that the estimated loss of property due to earthquake is to the tune of Rs210 billion. He said that since the rehabilitation and reconstruction work is gigantic in nature, it can be accomplished with the cooperation of international financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and the international community.

Inviting voluntary agencies to take up reconstruction work, Patel announced that state government would bear 50 per cent of the total cost involved. Besides, he also expressed his desire for the voluntary agencies and institutions to adopt villages for reconstruction purposes.