Uttarakhand's Urban Development Minister Pritam Singh Panwar (Left)
Even as flood-hit villagers in Uttarakhand struggle to cope with the poor supply of relief and rations, the state's ministers continue to live in denial.
At the tehsil's office in Joshimath, Urban Development Minister Pritam Singh Panwar was gheraoed by villagers demanding immediate relief, some even begging with folded hands.
"The pilgrims have all gone but locals like us from the Bamni and Mana villages have got nothing," a woman clad in a salwar-kameez told the minister in his impromptu darbar.
"Mana? They have got," Mr Panwar quipped, as his side kicks chanted "yes" in agreement.
"Nor did they get anything, nor did we."
Another villager intervened. "I'm the ex-sarpanch of Mana village. We were sent two litres of oil for 60 families," he said silencing Panwar and his posse of cronies.
Ironically, moments before this public humiliation, Mr Panwar - who is also Chamoli district's guardian minister - had declared that all was fine. "There is no such issue of people not getting rations. At best may be just one or two cases," he had said nonchalantly.
So, what is the problem? Is there a shortage of relief material in the form of rations? Doesn't seem so. At the local godown where relief has been stored, large number of gunny bags of dal and rice and boxes filled with biscuits and rusks lay.
The weather is certainly one of the problems. "We haven't been able to send regularly as helicopters haven't flown in this weather," the godown in-charge said.
While that may be true, what about the mismanagement of distribution? Take the case of Mana, the last village as one approaches the Indo-Tibetan border. It is just 2 kms from the heli-base in Badrinath, where rations are being flown in and pilgrims are being evacuated. Even they have the same complaint.
"We are 270 families and we were given rations for only 30 families. We helped pilgrims and even shared our food with them. Now can't the government help us? And the heli-base is so close," Pitambar Singh Mulpa, the ex-sarpanch of Mana village said. "There is a limit to our patience. They have forced us to cross that limit."