SRINAGAR, Oct 17: A senior official in charge of relief in quake-hit Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) has been removed after complaining that politicians were diverting vital aid to constituents.

Aijaz Kakroo, who was in charge of relief in the worst-hit Uri district, detailed political interference led by the state consumer affairs minister, saying it stopped aid reaching the most needy.

Kakroo, a popular government employee, was removed after telling reporters that Congress minister Taj Mohiudin had been interfering.

“Yes, I am interfering, I am the government,” Mohiudin, a state assembly member for Uri, shot back.

“If I will not intervene, who will intervene? I will intervene at every level to see equitable distribution of relief,” he told AFP, while overseeing relief distribution at Uri on Monday.

“The relief is coming to us (the government) and we have to distribute it to our satisfaction ... I am the government and he is a government servant. Who is he? He is accountable to me,” he said.

Kakroo, who holds deputy commissioner rank, was not contactable on Monday after being transferred to a different post.

In remote quake-hit villages of Indian Kashmir, where the delivery of relief supplies remains patchy, residents complained to AFP that political parties had disrupted distribution efforts.

“Our village has not received any government relief so far as we had voted for the opposition during the last elections,” says Farooq Ahmed, a resident of Garkote village in northern Uri sector.

“We are being victimised for our political ideologies,” he said, adding that whatever relief they received was from separatists and local charities.

Mohiudin said the accusations were being made at the behest of opposition leaders to “discredit the government”.

Villagers near the Line of Control, said soldiers and police, normally mistrusted, have been more equitable in relief distribution.—AFP