Post-quake Gujarat today poses the single-largest challenge ever faced by astate administration surpassing even the 1993 Latur quake, which had tillnow become a barometer for assessing the magnitude of nature's fury. Withtotal material losses pegged at Rs 21,000 core and the human toll crossingthe 35,000-mark, the January 26, 2001 quake, measuring a calamitous 7.9 onthe Richter may perhaps be reckoned among the worst natural disasters in theworld for a long time to come.

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Needless to say, the mammoth task at hand requires concerted and coordinatedefforts at all levels and between all the agencies involved, be it the stateadministration, the amed forces, the non-governmental organisations or thecorporate houses which have volunteered to adopt ravaged villages andtowns.

What is heartening is that the armed forces, which have once again played asterling role in the rescue and relief operations are working with the stateadministration like comrades-in-arms putting aside a bitter episode whichthreatened to alienate them. The collector of Bhuj at the time of the quakeKamal Dayani had in an official letter sent to the army accused it ofdiverting relief supplies and tents being flown in to the town from variousparts of the world for its own use. Not surprisingly, the army, which hadplayed an exemplary role in the rescue and relief operations not only interms of saving lives and providing crucial and timely medical and materialassistance in the devastated town despite suffering heavy losses itself, wasjustifiably aggrieved. A red-faced state government not only withdrew theletter hastily but also transferred the errant officer out of Bhuj. Says afellow bureaucrat, "The letter was a blunder which should never have beencommitted." On its part, the army too has choosen to underplay thehumiliation meted out to it. Maj Gen B S Dhillon, General Officer Commandingof the 11 Infantry Division in Gujarat dismisses the episode as "a knee-jerkreaction under extreme stress and duress" by the administrative serviceofficer whose entire office had been razed to the ground along with otherbuildings in Bhuj town. "We in the army are trained to deal with extremeforms of stress but most other people react to stress in different ways."

Letting bygones be bygones, the armed forces are already leading from thefront in the second phase of Operation Sahayata II in which over 50,000troops are deployed round-the-clock. These knights in olive green have drawnup plans of not only adopting several villages affected by the quake butalso providing logistical and material support to the state administrationfor rebuilding towns and cities. "The armed forces will be closelyassociated with the total reconstruction and rehabilitation processparticularly deep in the interiors where it is difficult for the civiladministration to reach," elaborates Maj Gen Dhillon. He adds that theconcept of adoption per se is not new to the army "which keeps adoptingvillages in normal times too since they help us to forge better ties withthe local populace."

Adds Brig S P Mehla, Commander of the 75 Independent Infantry Brigade inBhuj, "The priority is to restore physical communication by clearing roadsand arteries linking the villages and towns of Kutch to the rest of thestate." Almost 45 relief camps too have been set up by the army which willlook after the affected populace till they are fully rehabilitated evenwhile it continues to manage the huge supplies of relief material whichcontinue to pour in from ordnance units across the country.

On its part, the state administration too is grappling with a multitude ofvexed issues ranging from redrafting building laws to ensure that people gethomes and not death traps to live in in this quake-prone state torehabilitation and reconstruction of demolished towns and villages. Butbefore that, as the Anjar administrator Mr Gupta states, "the priority forthe moment is to provide temporary shelters for the homeless since thiswould provide them with some succour and assist them in bringing their livesback on the rails again."

That the actual reconstruction of quake-ravaged towns will not be easy is anunderstatement. Already, a dazed administration is having to look at a hostof safety issues including the question of whether to relocate the new townsto be constructed to newer, safer sites without removing the debris whichhas piled up. "Not only would this solve the problem of where to dump thetons of debris but would also ensure that the new areas are relativelysafer. In addition, in the new town plans we would also be able to ensurebetter town planning which would do away with the narrow by-lanes of the oldtowns of Bhuj, Anjar and Bachchau, which became death traps for peopletrying to flee to open spaces at the time of the quake," Gupta said. It maybe mentioned that the narrow bylanes of Anjar became graveyards for some 400school children who were buried alive in the lanes while marching for theRepublic on the fateful morning of the earthquake under mounds of debris ofadjacent houses and buildings which collapsed on them.

Apart from grappling with such ticklish issues, the sheer magnitude of thereconstruction is also a daunting prospect for the state government.

Back-of-the-envelope calculations by the administration reveal that nearly75,000 houses have been completely damaged while over 1.4 lakh are partiallydamaged. But here too officials caution that the task is much bigger thanwhat the figures indicate. "Considering that till now we have been able toconstruct a mere 100 houses in the cyclone-ravaged town of Kandla where over3,000 houses were destroyed in the 1998 cyclone, this time round we'retalking of a job which is hundred times larger," says a bureaucrat. "Whilethe government and the corporate houses can construct low-cost houses forthe poor and community centres and hospitals, we can't force the moreaffluent to make do with them. Similarly, how can we force people to evicttheir damaged houses forcibly or have them refortified," he added.

Meanwhile, in a bid to help people in these ghost towns shake out of thedespair and grief that engulfs them, the government has not only reopenedhundreds of fair price shops but is also coaxing locals to restart theirbusinesses. "Ultimately it is the affected people themselves who will haveto rise to the occasion and help themselves," observes a bureaucrat, who isclosely working with the local populations of the devastated towns. Noamount of aid or assistance will be enough. For instance, of the 650villages virtually razed to the ground, only 120 have been adopted thusfar.

"Moreover, many corporates are also using this tragedy as an image-buildingexercise for themselves gaining brownie points, mileage and kudos in theprocess," rues a government official. It's only the state administrativemachinery and the armed forces who continue to slog on at the long andarduous task of restoring Gujarat to its former prosperity, unflinching inthe face of brickbats and without any desire for bouquets.