DH News Service

Quake rehabilitation work shows what ignited minds can do: Kalam

From Utpal Borpujari

At Dagala village, about 33 km from the Kutch district headquarters of Bhuj which was devastated in the Republic Day earthquake last year, colourfully attired children and women outnumbered men today while welcoming President A P J Abdul Kalam, who said the rehabilitation work in the affected region had proved that “ignited minds” could do wonders in India.

Dr Kalam, who wound up his two-day Gujarat visit today with a few hours in the Bhuj area, went to three rehabilitation sites at Deendayal Nagar, Dagala-Mokhana-Modsar and Sukhpar, and people there heartily welcomed the man who was among the first to take major initiatives in starting relief work immediately after the killer quake.

The three sites for his visit were carefully selected, though. All the construction material for Deendayal Nagar was provided by the Technological Information Forecasting Assessment Council (TIFAC), of which Dr Kalam was the chairman; Sukhpar has been a fine example of public-private partnership; and the Dagala project has been undertaken by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, of which Dr Kalam is reported to be a disciple.

School children lined up the streets of Bhuj town since early in the morning despite high-velocity wind and cloudy conditions and waved the tricolour at the President as his cavalcade went from one camp to another.

But it was clear that the missile man of India has taken upon himself the task of igniting the minds of the children, the future of the nation. Like yesterday at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, he mingled freely with the children today at the relief camps and the rehabilitated villages.

At Dagala, where a public welcome was organised by the Amritanandamayi Math, Dr Kalam spent quite some time with children who had been orphaned in the earthquake and are now inmates of the upcoming SOS Children’s Village of India project in Bhuj.

In the presence of SOS India President J N Kaul, Dr Kalam spoke with the children, some as young as four years.

After lighting a lamp in front of a large portrait of Mata Amritanandamayi and offering flowers to it, he said the tremendous progress in the rehabilitation process in Kutch had gladdened his heart. “This is a perfect example of how many agencies can participate in such programmes in collaboration with the government for speedy progress. I feel great that this has become possible in Gujarat.”

Asking an official of the Math to translate his speech in English into Gujarati so that the people could understand him, Dr Kalam recalled his yesterday’s interaction with children at Sabarmati Ashram and once again stressed on the need to make India self-reliant in technology and economy so that its standing in the world improved.

“The need is ignited minds.... When I see the development in Kutch, I feel it is possible in India,” he said. Incidentally, the Math officials said it was the President himself who had informed the state government that he wanted to visit the villages being reconstructed by the Math.

Swami Sadashiva Chaitanya of the Math said Dr Kalam had written in his book “Ignited Minds” that after a meeting with Mata Amritanandamayi, he had decided to quit the job of Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister and devote himself to making India a developed country by 2020.

During his half-an-hour stay at the village, for which he arrived almost three hours late, he inspected a model house constructed for the villagers and recalled that since February 2000, he had made several visits to the region to take stock of the rehabilitation work being done.

Incidentally, the Math has completely relocated the Dagala and Modsar villages while the Mokhana village has been reconstructed in situ. Construction of about 1,500 houses is expected to be completed by next month to provide shelter for all the people of the three villages at a cost of about Rs 15 crore. (= 15 million rupees = 3 million dollars)