With glee they identify the 470-odd photographs of bloated bodies, lined up on the Nagarpalika walls, or claim that they have five members who have been rendered homeless, or that their hutments have disappeared. The mourning face of Kandla has been replaced by a triumphant one, making it more tragic than the cold statistics of the catastrophe. For the administration, it is a Catch-22 situation. ``If we are too particular about the authenticity of the people seeking compensation, it is the deserving who suffer,'' says Collector Mukesh Puri. He claims that 105 survey teams, consisting of all the mamlatdars and deputy collectors in the district, are on the job, verifying claims.

However, it is the undeserving who seem to out-number the deserving. In Servacolony, one of the worst-affected, the deputy collector who has come for a survey to ascertain the damage to houses, is mobbed. ``Those living in pucca houses are walking away with the money by pointing to a broken-down long-abandoned jhuggi,'' says an irate resident.

Maganbhai, who had gone away to a nearby village after the storm and returned when he heard the government was paying compensation for damaged houses, agrees. ``People are walking away with the compensation due to us,'' he complains.

And there is ample scope for the greedy to corner the compensation. Entire families of salt workers, belonging to Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, were wiped out by the storm. No one knows their number. Most of the survivors fled with their meagre belongings. Those still around have no identification papers, like ration cards, as these were lost in the storm.

Initially, the government machinery was busy exchanging allegations with the Port authorities, or attending to visiting VIPs. It was onlyafter reprimands by Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that the payment of cash doles of Rs 10 per day for every affected person started, three days after the calamity. Disbursement of compensation for the houses and the dead started after another two days.

Within eight days, Rs 10.5 lakh was paid as cash doles to 20,000 people, Rs 40.63 lakh as housing compensation and Rs 62 lakh for the dead. But dependents of only 86 of the 150 identified dead have been paid so far.

However, it is with the 474 photographs of semi-decomposed bodies that the game of deceit is played.

The bodies, all unidentified, were burnt on the spot. A long queue waits to identify the victims. A committee has been set up under the SDM to deal with these cases. After a body is identified, the photograph is pulled down, the relatives' names scribbled behind, and attached to an application. In the absence of identification papers, the application is referred by the committee to the local MLA forverification.

Some of the corporators were seen complaining to Minister of Industries Suresh Mehta that certain MLAs were misusing the system to help their own men get some cash on the side. Duplicate applications, fake names and forged identities are coming to light, acknowledge state officials.

This is especially true of the rehabilitation work being undertaken by the Kandla Port Trust, which has agreed to give land behind the Free Trade Zone for 4,000 families. Nearly 200 people have been employed on a war footing to erect a tin shed. The grey area is the list which will be provided by the district administration, based on a survey generally regarded as suspect. From Sarva colony, which had a population of 5,000 before the storm, there are now 7,000 claimants. Contractors are seen bringing in their own people, with forged identities, in place of those dead or missing to grab prime land. While the administration is still trying to get its act together -- its scheme providing rice and flour at Re 1 perkg failed to take off -- voluntary agencies are already on the job, providing water, food and clothes to survivors. ``As long as the people are getting food, it is fine. It does not matter who is giving it to them,'' says Mehta. At the relief camp organised by the Ganeshnagar Sarva Janata Samaj, supporting nearly 1,500 people, the stores are well-stocked and there are plenty of clothes. ``People just come and donate... we have 200 pairs of extra clothes and food, enough for another 1,000 people,'' said Valjibhai, one of the organisers. Even Dalits here have collected Rs 5,000, he said.