SANS SHELTER: An old woman sleeps in the open four days after the fire accident at Swarnabharati Nagar in Guntur on Tuesday.

GUNTUR: A majority of the 1,000 families that had lost their houses in Friday's major fire in Swarnabharati Nagar are spending time under open skies in their plots with whatever little they could salvage or donated by friends and relatives.

None of the residents, who work as daily labourers or domestic helps, has gone for work as their primary concern now is getting house site pattas where they had constructed huts. Many of them are averse to staying in temporary shelters provided by the district administration.

"If we move out of the plot and government officials come to enumerate the real allottees of plots, we might miss it. Neither money nor relief material has been distributed so far, so we have decided to stay put at any cost," observed Potla Nageswara Rao.

YSR's promise

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Minister for Transport Kanna Lakshmi Narayana had announced that pucca houses would be constructed for all victims at the same place under Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

The prerequisite of this scheme is that the beneficiary should possess a valid patta. A final decision has, however, not been taken so far. If the Government decides to go ahead with IAY, the long-pending issue of distributing pattas to the land allottees needs to be tackled on a war- footing.

"We are prepared to complete the job in 10 days if the Government decides to issue pattas after talking to the 3,500-odd settlers out of whom some 1,000 have been affected, " Guntur Revenue Divisional Officer Venkata Subbaiah told The Hindu on Tuesday.

Temporary shelters are also too few for the entire population affected by the incident and many of them did not want to leave behind their luggage at the site to sleep in the shelters fearing theft. Philanthropists were supplying curd rice and tamarind rice packets, which many children and adults could not consume continuously for four days.

In the afternoon, the district administration and some philanthropists supplied meals cooked at the site providing a major relief to victims.

The administration has pooled up utensils, clothes and bedsheets to distribute in a day or two.

The administration began distribution of Rs. 2,500 of cash relief to each affected family to buy utensils and as compensation for the loss of house.

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