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India Quake Survivor Found As Global Relief Effort Swings Into Gear
AHMEDABAD, India, Jan 31 (News Agencies) - Rescuers pulled another miracle survivor from the ruins Wednesday, as a vast international operation sought to help hundreds of thousands left injured, hungry and homeless by the Indian earthquake.
Just as hope seemed to have faded of finding anyone alive, an Indian team freed 55-year-old Jyotsnabhen Gandhi at 6:00 am (0030 GMT) from the ruins of her four-story apartment, where she had been trapped for five days.
"It's a miracle that she is alive," said K. Kailashnathan, the municipal commissioner of western Gujarat state's commercial capital, Ahmedabad.
Estimates of the death toll from Friday morning's quake in Gujarat, which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, have gone as high as 100,000, although state officials have stuck to a figure of around 20,000.
The federal government put the number of confirmed dead at 7,162, with nearly 29,000 injured.
As relief operations entered their sixth day, the focus moved sharply away from search and rescue to caring for the huge number of victims.
The international response to India's worst quake in 50 years has been swift and comprehensive, with even archrival Pakistan flying in tents and blankets.
But relief agencies said they were having difficulty handling the vast volume of relief traffic.
Patrick Fuller, information delegate for the International Federation of the Red Cross, which has launched an appeal for $15 million, said five planes a day were arriving at the airport in the worst-affected district of Bhuj.
"It takes a long time to clear stuff through the airport, as there is no lifting equipment and we don't have enough volunteers to simply shift everything by hand," Fuller said.
Another relief coordinator in Bhuj said he had yet to meet any local officials so he could start distributing supplies.
The Red Cross alone has flown in three mobile field hospitals, the largest of which is capable of handling 500 patients.
Along with food and water, doctors and medical supplies are in short supply, especially in Gujarat's Kutch region where the quake's epicenter was located.
All over Kutch, bodies were being burned with little or no ceremony on hastily constructed funeral pyres, as concerns grew over the possible spread of disease.
On Tuesday, government officials had sought to ease the shock caused by Defense Minister George Fernandes' assessment that the final number of dead would exceed 100,000, with twice that number injured.
"Until all the bodies which are trapped below the debris are recovered, a precise figure cannot be given," clarified Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Home Minister L.K. Advani was more directly critical of his cabinet colleague.
"It is sure that the death toll in the earthquake affected state is in five digits but going beyond it and overestimating, it is felt, would lead to panic among the people," Advani said.
Gujarat, which is in an earthquake-prone zone, has a population of around 42 million and is one of India's most prosperous states.
Law and order continued to be a problem with increasing reports of gangs looting bodies and damaged houses.
The cost of the earthquake will clearly run into the billions of dollars, and Vajpayee warned on Tuesday that taxes might have to be increased in the coming budget to offset the damages bill.
Home Minister Advani said Wednesday that property damage alone would easily exceed 100 billion rupees ($2.2 billion).
Meanwhile, the state-run Gujarat Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Fund said it would undertake the construction of 100,000 houses in the next year.
"These houses will be constructed keeping in view the standard criteria for earthquake-resistance," P.K. Laheri, principal secretary to the state's chief minister, told reporters.
"We estimate that reconstruction of houses alone would cost between 70 to 80 billion rupees. Some 100,000 houses will be reconstructed in the worst affected Kutch district. The government will also provide temporary accommodation to people who have lost their homes," he added.
Laheri said the government estimated that some ten billion rupees would be needed to put up fallen power cables and repair damaged roads.
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