Tardiness of relief work

Tardiness of relief work

While India was understandably unprepared for the tsunami that came without warning, this does not explain the inexcusable tardiness in the relief work in some of the affected areas. The tsunami might be a stranger to India, but not the destruction brought by nature to the country's eastern coastline, for long used to natural calamities such as cyclones and torrential rain.

A lack of coordination and foresight in making full use of the armed forces seems to have resulted in valuable time being lost. While the Coast Guard straightway plunged into search and rescue operations, a whole day was lost before the Army was called in to undertake rehabilitative measures and reconstruction work.

In Tamil Nadu, it was evident that politicians were keener on winning brownie points for meeting the aggrieved sections than on concerted action to bring effective relief. Central Ministers seemed to go one way, State Ministers another. Although there can be no argument against people's representatives visiting hospitals and the affected areas, an unconscionable amount of manpower, logistics support, and resources appear to have been soaked up by (these) visits at the cost of reaching relief to the victims quickly and effectively.

-- The Hindu, Madras, India