India PM visits remote islands
Singh promises speedy relief
PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has visited the tsunami-ravaged Andaman and Nicobar islands, mingling with grief-stricken women and children, and promising to speed up the relief and rehabilitation.
But aid workers said the already patchy relief operation had been further disrupted by his visit to the remote chain of islands where more than 6,000 people are feared killed by the December 26 tsunami.
Singh curled his arm around tearful women and affectionately consoled children Saturday in an exhibition ground where 1,200 survivors are living since they lost their homes.
"I can see sorrow and pain written on the faces of so many citizens of our country," Singh said.
Lawrence Orbhet, a member of a primitive tribe in the gravely ravaged Car Nicobar island walked up to the prime minister and asked: "My house is gone, where will I go?"
Singh said he would ensure that houses and schools are quickly rebuilt.
"This is my solemn assurance that the government of India will spare no resources to come to the aid of all families affected by this tragedy," he said.
The government said India's toll from the December 26 tsunami had risen to 15,636, including 5,624 missing people, most of whom, officials say, are presumed to have died.
Aid workers have complained that relief work on the islands has been slow to get off the ground, partly because of restrictions on outsiders visiting many of the islands, which lie 1,200 km (750 miles) off India's east coast.
Relief work also has slowed down in recent days, they said, as local officials were preoccupied with Singh's tour.
"For the last three days, officials have done little else except make pie charts, graphs, files for the prime minister's visit," said Dr Vikram Tirkey from the Emmanuel Hospitals Association, who is waiting for permission to begin relief work in the Andamans.
Hundreds of people on the islands are stranded in jungles and hills, living off coconuts, bananas and food packets and water dropped from the air.
"At a time like this, how can you have the administration doing nothing except preparing for the visit," said Alex Joseph, senior project officer from a New Delhi-based voluntary Christian group Discipleship Centre.
"It is an emergency situation, we are talking of a situation where rescue and evacuation is still going on," said Alex Joseph.
Officials say food and water has reached all islands, but many people living in interior areas had not yet received any aid because roads had been washed away.
India's main opposition group, the Bharatiya Janata Party, said there had been "lapses" by federal government and the local administration in providing relief to the islands. "The government says that all the jetties have been repaired and water supply has been restored," BJP leader and former foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, said in New Delhi after returning from the Andamans. "But this is not correct."
Ruled directly from New Delhi, many of the islands are off limits to foreigners and mainland Indians, partly to protect their fragile ecology and tribal cultures and partly because of military bases and listening bases on the archipelago.
India sees the islands as strategically important partly because they sit astride vital trade routes heading west from the Straits of Malacca.
After the civil administration failed to quickly respond to the disaster, the military took over relief work bringing in supplies from the mainland on giant planes and ships.
"We have enough relief material, the challenge is to reach it to every survivor," said Lieutenant General B.S. Thakur, local military commander.
