The Hindu : Latur remembers quake victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2003

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Latur remembers quake victims

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

KILLARI SEPT. 30 . It was this day 10 years ago that Killari village in Latur district became a heap of rubble. Over 1,100 died when the killer earthquake destroyed the hamlet.

At about noon today, just two forest department functionaries were found at the foot of the memorial erected in memory of the dead in the abandoned village. They were having lunch. The others had paid their homage and left.

Some three km away, in New Killari, where the entire village was relocated, all shops had downed shutters; not a cup of tea could be had. It has been like that on this day every year — a remembrance day for the dead.

All was quiet in Sastur, in the neighbouring Osmanabad district, the new village where the survivors had moved to restart their lives again. At the old village square, people came and curious onlookers were asked to join in a solemn programme organised to remember the dead.

In Chincholi Jogan, it was a black day for the farmhands, a day of mourning. None went to work. The people of Gubal had made their way to the service at Sastur, before returning to carrying on with their daily chores.

This region, which recorded 6.4 on the Richter Scale, has seen 9,782 lives snuffed out at 3.56 a.m. this day 10 years ago, and had gone through a traumatic period of rehabilitation. Fifty-two villages were resettled and innumerable houses rebuilt with the support of people from within and outside the country. The World Bank aid was Rs.1, 200 crores.

The people here would like to forget the day of the calamity, save the memory of their kith and kin. But the small things they need to face, remind them of how the resettlement was done. And they are troubled.

No wonder, a Rs. 30 lakh museum, with pictures of the devastated landscape, set up opposite the memorial pillar here, stands stripped of its exhibits. Even the wiring has been removed, though it was built in 1999. None visit the place, except by way of passing through to their farms. When asked, locals say it could be "indifference". Life in a resettlement has its own tale of woes.

Homes can be shifted, not farmlands. Reaching the farms has become expensive. Being farther away by up to seven km, the farmhands need transportation.

In Gubal, people were given houses of concrete. The walls, as in the houses in many other villages, leak during monsoon. Nails cannot be used because they are pre-fab houses.

People have converted non-functional toilets into storerooms. Says Balaji Jadhav, a school official, "this was designed by a famed architect and it does not have an escape for rainwater from the roofs which now leak. We spent money to put drains."

Everywhere, new extensions have come up in the resettlement houses, because what was given was not enough.

Another resident, Sahdev Sakhre, speaks of how in the same village people lost neighbours because they were spaced apart.

Villages resemble small townships, devoid of the huddling character of a rural setting.

But when it comes to adding new space, people use the ill-absorbed technology of doubtful durability to withstand quakes.

It is because those trained in quake-proof masonry, have migrated to cities, says Gundu Sadashiv Birajdar, Chincholi Jogan's gram panchayat member,

Obviously, some lessons have been learnt from the Latur experience where, despite people's participation to the satisfaction of the World Bank, some gaps still remain. However, the people find it difficult to stick to the new technology that was taught them and hope the September 30, 1993, incident would never happen again.

On the positive side, the victims concede that they got houses and a chance to live their lives without having to spend on buildings.

In the rebuilt Killari, 303 shops have been constructed in an expanded new resettlement area.

However, only a few do business others never open.

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