Rs. 3000 for totally damaged houses and double cheques, public of Bara Samdong allege lapses in relief disbursement

A house damaged by the18 Sept earthquake at Bara Samdong

GANGTOK, 01 Nov: Discrepancies in the relief disbursement process (of compensation to earthquake affected) and callousness on the part of officials dealing with the public at the ground level on this particular matter keeps coming to light in the form of complaints made by the affected public.
This time such discrepancies have been reported from West Sikkim, Bara Samdong particularly where not only have there been complaints regarding the careless categorization of house damage and subsequent compensation accruing to victims but there are also incidents coming to light of dual cheques being issued to the same person by the administration. Though there are no indications of foul play or mischievous intent in the issuing of dual cheques to the same individual by the concerned BDO it does indicate non application of the mind in a process which has become sensitive and almost controversial with many complaints especially of favouritism.
The public of Bara Samdong under Rinchenpong constituency are particularly unsatisfied with the administration over the distribution of earthquake relief fund; in fact while interacting with NOW it was also alleged that there has been partiality on the part of the authorities especially in categorizing houses similarly affecting in different categories for house damage compensation. It is reported that in this particular area a total of 98 houses were damaged out of which 13 were severely damaged making it almost impossible for habitation apart from being beyond repair.
However instead of categorizing these totally damaged houses under the appropriate category of house damage (severely damaged or totally damaged) they were classified either under major or minor damages and the victims got between Rs.3000 to Rs.6000 only. It is also alleged that individuals with more severely damaged houses were paid lesser than those with relatively minor damages. The people, it is informed, approached the concerned BDO to do an inspection to verify their claims, however it is reported that the BDO declined to conduct such an inspection thereby increasing the dissatisfaction of the public. Requests by the area panchayat to the BDO for an inspection also did not result in much. Even the DC West has who has been informed has yet to visit the area. 
To compound the dissatisfaction of the people on acquiring the list of victims to whom cheques for relief had been disbursed it came to light that there were two individuals who had received dual cheques. One person had received two cheques of Rs.3000 each while another received one for Rs. 3000 and another for Rs. 5000. This indicates a certain slack attitude on the part of the administration and which has further led to the public of the area to file an RTI application seeking details of the disbursed amount. The public of the area have also appealed to the government to look into their complaints and initiate action to better delivery.

DC West welcomes specific complaints
Reacting to the allegations made by the public of Bara Samdong, West Sikkim of lapses and discrepancies by the west district administration in the earthquake relief disbursement the DC, West talking to NOW assured that wherever and if there were specific complaints made to his office they would be surely looked into. He also informed that he would be sending a team comprising of the ADC, West and an official from the Disaster Management Office to the Bara Samdong gram panchayat unit tomorrow to ascertain the complaints and grievances of the people there.
It was stated by the DC West that whether it was an allegation of unequal house compensation or the matter of two cheques having been issued to the same person the administration would welcome specific complaints so that it could look into the matter expeditiously.
On the role of the administration the DC West informed that the administration had taken double precaution in ascertaining claims for house compensation in that they had not just relief on the area panchayats but had dispatched two persons to each GPU for verification of claims. A senior person belonging to the particular GPU had been made In Charge of the GPU while a local teacher had been made ward In Charge. Together they were part of the team which went house to house to verify the complaints and claims of individual families.