Relief work at IDP Camps lagging

Refugees affected by military operations in Bajaur trying to get back to a normal life still live with limited facilities and in harsh conditions despite promises by officials of their situation improving soon.

Lack of coordination between the government and donor agencies was hampering relief activities at the camps set up for the internally displaced persons of Bajaur tribal region. The inside story compiled from personal obervation and news items of different Newspapers are as follwoing;

The Relief Coordination Committee for the internally displaced persons (IDPs), notified by the chief secretary NWFP, includes secretaries of education, health, local government and other departments but most of them either don’t attend its meetings or send their subordinates to represent them, which clearly indicate their level of interest in the issue.
The ninth meeting of the committee last Monday, with provincial relief commissioner in the chair, was no exception as administrative secretaries didn’t attend it. Lack of interest by top officials in the deliberations of the committee has been delaying the urgent tasks about providing relief to IDPs.
The committee could not get land near Jalozai camp where all IDPs from all the camps except Kacha Garhi would be shifted. They desperately needed the land for the camp at Jallozai because camps in Mardan, Dir, Charsadda and Risalpur were temporary arrangements and didn’t have the facilities.
‘This needs prompt action by the government. We cannot take lead role. We can provide only technical and financial support. The government departments are required to sign an agreement with the land owner in Jalozai to pave the way for the establishment of the camp,’ said a representative of an international relief body while interview with me. According to him, the health department was also not willing to assume its leadership role in provision of healthcare facilities to the camps’ inmates.
The apathy of health department could be judged from the story of a pregnant woman, who was taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex last week. During her labour pain, the doctors told her that she didn’t need hospitalisation because she was still to wait for a few days to deliver a baby.
‘She was sent back to Kacha Garhi camp where she delivered a baby at midnight. Luckily, there was no complication,’ said another official of a relief organisation.
A few weeks ago, an elderly woman from the same camp died when she was refused admission in the same hospital, he said and added that provincial government remained unmoved despite verbal complaints.
According to the structure of the committee, Wapda and police officials were also required to attend the meeting regularly and pursue problems of IDPs. Most of the junior officers who attended the meetings pretended to be not in the know of the proceedings or not authorised to take this or that action.
The relief commissioner had asked all the departments to send authorised officers to the meetings who could make decisions on the spot and avoid unnecessary delays but the situation was yet to show any signs of improvement.
A few days ago, the Governor NWFP also asked the members of coordination committee to expedite work and provide more facilities to the camps’ dwellers but his directives also fell on deaf ears.