In my last column , I mentioned some volunteers disposing of bodies. The Tata Relief Committee had also brought piles of relief supplies and were systematically taking them to distant, inaccessible villages. I tagged along on one of these trips, a three-hour ride in an Army boat to the village of Padampur, right on the coast. It was handed out according to long lists of names on which the villagers put their thumbprints. Of course, there remain problems with the distribution of relief.
Many villages still are very hard to reach, which has two consequences.
One, the more accessible villages have had an excess of material dumped on them. Two, villagers are walking as much as 20 kilometres every day to get aid. There was also one false note that I wish the TRC people had dealt with better. An old man shook the box that contained his lantern. He asked for another, but was waved away.