More than 20,000 people are said to have died from the quake, the worst in 50 years, which registered 7.9 on the Richter scale. Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless.

There has been rising anger and strong complaints from working people about shabby construction, violation of building codes by contractors, and the government's failure to enforce quake-proofing measures. Kishore Chandran in Bhuj pointed to a building that was tilting at a 45 degree angle with three floors sunk in the ground. "This building has been built on a drain," he told news reporters. "The government should not have given permission" to construct it.

"No doubt this earthquake was a natural calamity," said Kirti Gajar, a resident of Ahmedabad and a civil engineer whose son was killed beneath a pile of rubble. "We can expect some damage, but nothing like this." Some 600,000 homeless people in Ahmedabad are living in camps or on the streets.

T.N. Gupta, who helped prepare a government study by scientists and engineers on natural disaster prevention, said, "Most builders want to do things as cheaply as possible and they can get their plans approved by greasing the right palms."

Conditions of a semicolonial country exploited for decades by imperialist powers turn a "natural disaster" such as an earthquake, cyclone, or flood into a social disaster with devastating consequences. "We had an earthquake in Latur that killed 9,700 people, said Gupta. "An earthquake of the same intensity in California killed five."

Meanwhile, the Indian government stated its plans to make working people foot the bill for the earthquake. "The people of the country should be ready for harsh taxes in the coming budget," declared Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee.

The government had been ill-prepared to deal with the crisis, with cranes, bulldozers, and other machines not arriving in demolished areas until more than 24 hours after the quake struck.

"Big concrete slabs have to be moved and if equipment had reached us earlier, we could have saved more lives," said one military official.

In Bhuj, a town of 150,000 people near the quake's epicenter, virtually all those living there have lost friends, relatives, and homes. They are living in refugee camps made of plastic sheets and cotton. The town's only hospital has also collapsed, the national director of disaster management reported.

In the regions most affected by the quake, hospitals lacked adequate facilities and rescue equipment was scarce. Little aid was offered from advanced capitalist countries in the first days after the catastrophe. Washington initially offered an insulting $25,000 the day after the quake hit and said more would be available if requested. The U.S. government has since offered $5 million, London $14.6 million, and the German government $6.1 million.  
 
 
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