Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced an additional assistance of Rs 500 crore, civilians on Tuesday joined the government and armed forces in a big way contrbuting food and clothes for victims of the killer quake in Jammu and Kashmir as the toll crossed the 1000 mark.
In a spontaneous reaction, people in almost every locality of Srinagar donated clothes, blankets, dry ration and whatever they could manage in response to frequent appeals blared from mosque loudspeakers, official sources said.
Within no time, heaps of clothes, food items and blankets piled up at Batmaloo, Rambagh, Channipora, Nowhatta, Dandanderkhah, Maisuma and every other locality and there was hardly any person who did not rush to the help of breaved brethren in the worst-affected northern region.
As the armed forces continued with their sorties ferrying the injured to safer places and trying to establish communication with hitherto untouched areas, Dr Singh visited Tangdhar and Uri to get a first hand account of the situation.
Assuring all possible help to the affected people, Dr Singh announced Rs 500 crore assistance to cope with the tragedy in addition to the ad hoc help of Rs 100 crore announced earlier.
"From an ordinary person to a government official, everyone is coming forward. Employees of almost all government and semi-government offices, educational institutions and public sector undertakings have made monetary contributions to non-governmental organisations," said a volunteer, overwhelmed with the response.
Stalls have also been set up by various NGOs on main roads to receive contribution from the locals so that adequate relief could be diverted to the worst hit Uri and Tangdhar sectors near the Line of Control in North Kashmir.
"They need our help. Let everyone come and join our hands to reach out to the victims of the earthquake," was the appeal made through public address system of local mosques.
Srinagar turned into a big collection ground with every section of the society coming forward with contributions in cash and kind to add to the measures being undertaken by the government and armed forces.
Groups of youth also rushed to Uri and Tangdhar sectors Tuesday to supplement the efforts of government and armed forces, the sources said.
The Jammu and Kashmir bank provided two truckloads of relief items including food and blankets to the survivors of the earthquake in Uri. Even as the building of its Uri branch was destroyed in the tremblor, it continues to function from a mobile van close to the bank premises rendering services to the people, a bank release said.
With the recovery of more bodies in Uri and Tanghdar sectors Tuesday morning, the death count from the killer tremblor rose to 1077 even as the search operations continued for the fourth day, the sources said.
