Thiruvananthapuram: A bogey full of milk powder from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was lying at Kochu Veli railway station for two or three days before it was packed off to Alappuzha on Sunday morning.
Dr Anup Abdulla, a Thiruvananthapuram resident who got to know about it from a Facebook post and volunteered to make calls to various officials, says, "There were two bogeys of relief materials, one containing only milk powder. It was 13 tonnes of milk powder, according to officials at the station. We contacted the district administration, which figured out it can be sent to Alappuzha."
Relief wagons can be attached only to trains with less than 25 wagons, the maximum number of wagons a train can have, according to Dr Abdulla.
Flood relief materials are sent without any booking from other states, and railway officials may not even be aware of the materials. Moreover only district magistrate or the Collector can receive these packages. Usually, when a government agency sends a package they inform the district administration, who would make arrangements to collect it from the station.
However, relief materials from various states are broadly addressed to the 'State of Kerala'. These reach stations in Thiruvananthapuram, as these are the last stations. "In addition to this, the trains don't stop for more than two or three minutes at Alappuzha, Kottayam and such stations.
There is a longer stop at Ernakulam. There is not much time for unloading. This has been resolved now. From the day before yesterday, we have ensured that the bogeys with relief materials get detached at stations," said the railway PRO, here.
Relief materials-provisions, packed food items, drinking water and clothes- lay unattended at Ernakulam south railway station.
According to railway authorities, the organisations concerned were not turning up to take delivery.
Usually materials used to be delivered to organisations that carried letters from officials in charge of camps.
But now the process has changed and the items are directly transferred to offices where the packets are mentioned for delivery. Taking these items from district collector/magistrate's offices causes huge delays.
In some places, the relief materials were being delivered to people staying on arterial roads as trucks are too big for the interiors, said M.P Shajan, former panchayat member, Puthanvelikara.
There were three collection points other than the Collectorate in Thrissur Town which are MTI polytechnic, St Thomas College and Thope Indoor Stadium.
Volunteers at MTI said they had distributed all materials, including grocery and used clothes they had collected. Materials at St Thomas and Thope Stadium were under the district administration, which was concerned with the disposal.
Loads of relief materials pile up at airports too
A recent directive of the state government with regard to importing of relief materials from abroad seems to have led a confusion, resulting in piling up of many articles at the airports.
IUML MLA M.K. Muneer alleged that at least 30 tons of relief material sent to a voluntary organisation headed by him was among tons of assignment held up at the Thiruvananthapuram airport's cargo complex. However, Commissioner of Customs (preventive) Mr. Sumit Kumar said that majority of the consignments meant for relief were already cleared and only a few were held up due to want of proper documents.
According to sources, though the Centre had earlier clarified that either the district collector or any government recognised relief organisations could collect the relief materials from airport, the state disaster management officials issued a note the other day saying that only the district collector could collect the relief materials from airports.
Hence some relief materials addressed to recognised organisations from abroad could not be cleared from Thiruvananthapuram due to objections by the district administration.
Mr. Muneer alleged that the Mission Kozhikode project he headed was duly recognised by the Kozhikode district collector.
But even then some relief materials, mainly clothes, sent to us through the Thiruvananthapuram airport could not be released due to objections raised by the district administration, he said. Sources said that the state government may soon issue a clarification on the matter.
