Saturday, January 15 2005 10:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Cuddalore: With relief pouring in from all over the country, the tsunami-affected villagers in Cuddalore have reportedly started selling off the materials to local shops to earn a cut on what the administration and voluntary organisations are already providing.

Local administrative officials admitted that the reports have reached them from certain villages where tsunami victims are selling off the daily ration provided to them by the Government as well as non-government organisations.

"Yes, only today my office has heard that a group of villagers in the Devanampattinam village are daily selling off the rice, pulses and other essential materials they are getting from the NGOs," Sub Divisional Magistrate S Prabhakaran said.

"This will be a setback for the many agencies who have been tirelessly working in this district since the tsunami struck. I will apprise the collector and the Superintendent of Police of this matter," he said.

"Since we cannot upset the villagers, who are already in a sensitive state of mind after the loss, we will tackle the matter in the appropriate manner so as to put a stop to this and at the same time make sure that all the people are getting aid adequately," he said.

Local nodal officers also alleged that groups of people start fistfights every day to acquire the most volume of relief, which they later sell at local groceries.

"Despite having issued them coupons and segregated them into categories according to their need, the villagers try to grab the maximum relief as possible. Some people in Devanampattinum have sold off the bed sheets, each costing about Rs 200, that were given to them by an NGO for as little amount as Rs 50," a rural development official, who refused to be named, said.

"The NGOs are coming from all over the country and the situation as it stands now is that the people who had lost everything in the tidal waves have now an excess of relief material," she said adding the stream of NGOs are still approaching the district officials everyday.

"We try to allot them particular villages so that the material reaches the right hands and villagers in Cuddalore are getting as much as 20 kgs of rice daily," she said adding that Devanampattinam being the largest coastal fishing village, had been the worst affected and have attracted the largest number of voluntary organisations.

"This severely hampers the relief efforts carried out by the Government and other agencies," she said.

"We will meet the collector tomorrow (Jan 16, 2005) and confirm the news, but whatever be the truth behind this, we will carry on our relief work and see to it that aid is adequately distributed," a member of an international NGO working at Devanampattinum said.

Incidentally, the district officials had recently called for streamlining of the relief work in Cuddalore.