SOLAPUR: Sixty seven policemen have been suspended for allegedly stealing ornaments and cash from dead bodies and collapsed houses and shops.
The policemen from Solapur district has been deployed for carrying out rescue and relief operations. Army jawans nabbed some of these cops in the act of committing the theft in shops and removing jewelry of the corpses.
Inoculations: The Army doctors have started inoculating the relief workers against cholera, gasir enteritis and Stanus. With some bodies still buried under the debris, there is a strong possibility of the workers catching infection.
Sikh Relief Squads:
The Sikh community of Bombay sent three busloads of relief workers with rations to the quake hit areas Based at Umerga, the men and women are cooking food and supplying it in camps around Sastur and Killari.
Faujis work, cops sit idle: Watching the Army jawans engrossed in relief work in Sastur and other villages, one wonders if the cops sitting idle had a conscience or not. While the men of the Army were constantly on their toes, the cops loitered around aimlessly.
The men in olive greens lifted brick blocks with hands and used belches to retrieve the household items which lay buried beneath the debris. “Even a patila (utensil) is very useful for the victims,” said a subedar from § Assam battalion, “Even if we have to dig 5 feet to take it out, my men will do it,” he claimed with pride.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 15, 1993
