Flood relief helicopter uproots huts in Assam

IANS Published: September 15, 2007, 23:04

Guwahati: An Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter pressed into service in flood-hit Assam turned out to be a nightmare for villagers as it flew in too low, uprooting huts and injuring five people, officials said yesterday. The MI-17 helicopter loaded with 1.5 tonnes of food packets was on a relief mission in parts of southern Assam on Thursday when it created a "hurricane like situation"in human settlement areas below, a government spokesman said. Full Story

Uganda: Govt Abandons Flood Victims

The Monitor (Kampala)

OPINION
14 September 2007
Posted to the web 13 September 2007

Miria Obote

The heavy rains in the past three weeks have unleashed floods across Teso, Lango and Acholi regions and wrecked havoc on the properties and lives of thousands of people in those regions. People's homes have been flooded and sometimes washed away just like their food stores.

Food crops in gardens have been inundated by the floods and are rotting away. Roads have been flooded and bridges washed away making movement of people, their livestock and properties impossible. The people are in desperate need of shelter, food, sanitation facilities, medical care, clothing etc.

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He asked for flood relief, had acid poured into his eyes

J P Yadav

Posted online: Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 0000 hrs

Victim from Bihar village says mukhiya and his men to blame; they allege that he pointed a pistol at them

DARBHANGA, AUGUST 24: A Villager who demanded food grain in flood relief from the local mukhiya pati was allegedly beaten up and had acid poured into his eyes.

His eyes bandaged, 29-year-old Shiv Kumar Sahni lies in his bed at the Darbhanga Medical College & Hospital. A landless sharecropper from the flood-ravaged Tomaria village in Madhubani district, he runs a small tea shop with his father, and has a wife and two daughters.

Last Tuesday, Shiv Kumar had walked up to the house of Kapeshwar Mukhia — who operates as panchayat head in proxy for his wife Rajkumari Devi — and demanded his share of food grain announced by the government in flood relief.

The enraged mukhiya pati (as husbands of mukhiyas running the show on behalf of wives are known) and his men first beat him and then poured acid in his eyes and mouth.

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Flood relief passes by India's most neglected

India
August 20, 2007

Hand outs: Flood victims receive food distributed by the Indian army at a temple in the northern Indian state of Bihar.
Photo: AP

TWO weeks after their hamlet of 17 houses was marooned into an island village by violent flooding that swept through Bihar, the 200 people of Chak Ganoli are still waiting for help from the Government and aid agencies.

These villagers are members of the musahar — rat-catching — sub-caste, a social group at the bottom of the Indian social hierarchy. Outcast even by other Dalit, or untouchable, groups, they are so accustomed to being marginalised that there is barely any surprise at this latest example of neglect.

Human rights groups said last week that Dalits were the worst hit by the flooding, which has upturned the lives of 14 million people across Bihar and killed more than 2800 across south Asia.

"Relief has not reached them and, if it has reached, it is scanty," said Paul Divakar of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights.

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Flood victims warned of rogue traders

Trading standards officials have warned homeowners in flood-hit parts of Oxfordshire to be on their guard against bogus traders and cowboy builders.

The warning follows reports that people affected by flooding in other areas of the UK have been targeted.

There have been no reports of rogue traders operating in Oxfordshire, but trading standards has acted after receiving reports of fraudsters offering a range of work, including construction, tree chopping, garden clearance and roof cleaning.

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