Never imagined we would be received so warmly: Evacuees praise UP govt

As many as 20,643 people have crossed over to the Indian side via Sonauli (about 90 km from Gorakhpur) and other smaller towns along the 700-km long Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border ever since the massive earthquake hit the Himalayan kingdom. Sharat Pradhan/Rediff.com reports from Gorakhpur, where the UP government has set up a relief camp for tourists being evacuated from Nepal.

Eight days on since the devastating earthquake shook the Himalayan kingdom, as many as 20,643 people have crossed over to the Indian side via Sonauli (about 90 km from Gorakhpur) and other smaller towns along the 700-km long UP-Nepal border.

Even as the people hailed from different corners of India -- more particularly Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Delhi, Maharastra, Punjab --  everyone showered praise on UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for having provided unprecedented support to Nepal in battling the grave natural calamity .

“I don’t think we could have reached here without  the UP government’s gesture of not only providing us free transport right from Kathmandu to this place, but also to our ultimate destinations across the country,” said Jamia Dorji, 66, a Tibetan who had travelled all the way from West Bengal to Kathmandu to meet his ailing sister there.

“The earthquake gave me the biggest shock of my life and I will never forget ordeal we had to face in evacuating my sick elder sister from her fifth floor house of a building that had developed deep cracks after it was shaken by the tremors,” he said.

Ideally, Dorji would have taken the Bihar route to his home near Kolkata.

“But that seemed an uphill task as there was neither accommodation available on flights from Kathmandu nor was there enough road transport facility available on the Bihar route. It was just then that the Indian embassy announced the availability of buses sent by the UP government, and I jumped at the opportunity,” he told this scribe on his arrival at the special relief camp set up at the GorakhpurUniversity.

“At one point of time my family nearly gave up the possibility of returning home -- since there were a couple of aftershocks. We could have never imagined that not only would we get carted comfortably but that we would also be received so warmly first at the Sonauli border and then at this camp in Gorakhpur,” he pointed out.

“What came as a bigger surprise was the facility for free train travel to Kolkata against a certificate issued by UP officials at the camp,” added Dorji, who narrated how he got his first sumptuous meal after the quake, at the relief camp.

And sure enough, there were many others such as Dorji who found it difficult to believe what they saw to be true. Besides, 6,009 persons from different corners of UP, these included some 4,485 people belonging to Bihar and hundreds from each of the dozen other states.

“We had thought that after the calamity, we would have to face more exploitation at the hands of our rescuers, but the availability of buses and other logistics made available by the government of a state such as UP was incredible,” remarked Om Prakash, 35, a resident of Karnal (Haryana) who had been in Kathmandu for more than 45 days in connection with his business.

According to Gorakhpur divisional commissioner R K Ojha, who had been entrusted with the task to control and coordinate the massive relief operations organised by the UP government, “While 13,481 persons came from Kathmandu to Sonauli in the buses provided by us, 6,262 reached our Gorakhpur relief camp on their own and other entry points ,” he said.

“These included 164 Nepalese -- most of them are employed in India,” he added.

Significantly, about 710 foreigners preferred to take the UP route to move on to Delhi for their onward journey either back to their homes across the continents or to other destinations.

The entry was granted even to those who did not have an Indian Visa.

“We made it a point to facilitate entry to 93 foreigners who did not have an Indian visa; thanks to the immigration department which issued on-the-spot permits to them for reaching Delhi from where they could re-plan their respective journeys,” Ojha said.

He went on to add, “Considering that 40 of the 210 buses provided by us returned empty on Sunday afternoon, we do not see return of any more quake-affected from Nepal.”

In all, as many as 359 trucks were sent from UP with relief material, which included  164 trucks of food-grain, 102 of biscuits and snacks, dry milk, 50 of bottled mineral water and 11 of Maggi noodles.

Besides, a dozen ambulances with a team of 42 doctors and appropriate paramedical staff, 10 were sent with medicines and 23 carted tens of thousands of blankets, tarpaulins, torches and lanterns for those who were start life afresh in the devastated land.