In a sequel to the continued fallout of the traumatic 26th February fire, traders of the Shiv Shakti Textile Market have frozen an amount offered as a relief donation of Rs. 45 lakh (US $ 52,000) (US $ 52,000), deeming the amount offered as totally inadequate. The amount was raised by the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA) from over 175 donation sources, and equated to about Rs 5,000 (US $ 60) for each shop, insignificant enough to bring back to life businesses that have losses running in hundreds of crores.
SSTMA (Shiv Shakti Textile Market Association) president Sunil Kothari said the market was still shut with no power to it and too much structural damage to operate from. More than 555 of the 855 shops were completely burnt out in the long, arduous 70 hours of the fire.
The refusal of such assistance is part and parcel of a growing clamour for organised disaster relief and insurance reforms.
With the textile sector forming one of the cornerstones of the labour and export economy of India, industry leaders are rallying the Government to do its part in writing compensation frameworks and sturdy recovery systems, to prevent us from the same disaster in the future.
