The Kalaymyo Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) has begun collecting Kyat 1000 each from villagers of Tanbo and Yan Kyi Aung villages for victims of a cyclone on 7 May 2009, which completely destroyed 24 houses.

Reports available said that the villagers urged the authorities to provide relief for cyclone victims. The TPDC authorities instead of providing relief from their side started collecting money from the villagers.

“We had reported and requested the Township Peace and Development Council for relief as they would have penalized us if we had ignored it. But the Council is unwilling to do anything from its side. They ordered collection of Kyat 1000 each from the villagers,” said a local member of TPDC.

The collected funds have to be submitted to the TPDC office by the end of July 2009. Failure on this score would mean the secretaries of village tracts will be handed extreme punishment.

“We would really like to help but we don’t want to do so if we are coerced. The TPDC just wants to show its power,” a local of Natchaung village said.

The cyclone victims have been helped by local Christian groups and other volunteer donors, but there is no aid or assistance from the Burmese military government.

“We have given as much relief as we could to cyclone victims. They are depending on that relief for food,” said a local Church leader.

There are around 50,000 houses in Kalaymyo Township and money has already been collected from 24,000 houses. The victims, however, have got only Kyat one lakh from the collected funds.

The cyclone on May 7 destroyed many villages in Falam Township and Thantlang Township in Chin state. But the authorities did not care to help.