Relief camp stock and water after a mid-camp influx
On 4 July a Sub-divisional Officer opens a relief camp in a high-school building in a block of East Singhbhum district. That morning the camp holds 1,200 displaced persons, and the godown has rice sufficient for 18 days at the state relief scale of 400 g per person per day. Issue at exactly that scale begins the same day. On the morning of 10 July, after six full days of issue at that scale, 300 more persons arrive from a hamlet that has gone under water, and the district supply office sends 240 kg of rice the same evening. The camp water tanker holds 5,000 litres, is refilled once every morning, and the camp working norm is 3 litres per person per day for drinking and cooking. The officer-in-charge of the police post keeps the stock register and must tell the SDO, in writing and with figures, whether the camp can be run to the original 18-day schedule and what has to be indented.
1. Using the figures in the setup, calculate how many days the rice will now last and state the shortfall against the 18-day schedule.
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Step 1 - opening stock. 1,200 persons x 0.400 kg x 18 days = 8,640 kg.
Step 2 - stock left on the morning of 10 July. Six full days were issued: 1,200 x 0.400 x 6 = 2,880 kg consumed. Balance = 8,640 - 2,880 = 5,760 kg.
Step 3 - add the fresh supply. 5,760 + 240 = 6,000 kg available from 10 July evening.
Step 4 - new daily requirement. Population = 1,200 + 300 = 1,500. Daily need at 400 g = 1,500 x 0.400 = 600 kg per day.
Step 5 - duration. 6,000 / 600 = 10 days, i.e. stock runs out at the end of 19 July.
Step 6 - shortfall. Day 1 was 4 July, so day 18 is 21 July. From 11 July to 21 July inclusive the camp needs 11 more days, but has only 10. The gap is 1 day, i.e. 600 kg; measured from the 10 July evening balance the camp is short of the schedule by roughly 2 issue-days if the 10 July issue is counted against the old stock. The safe indenting figure is therefore at least 1,200 kg, which also covers the buffer the SDO will ask for. Note the trap: the 240 kg does not 'add two days' - arrivals raised consumption by 25 per cent, so each day of delay in indenting now costs 600 kg, not 480 kg.
2. If no further rice arrives, what per-person daily ration would carry the camp to 21 July, and what advice should the officer record?
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Calculation. Available stock = 6,000 kg. Persons = 1,500. Days to be covered up to 21 July = 12 (11 to 21 July inclusive, plus the balance of 10 July).
Per-person-per-day ration = 6,000 / (1,500 x 12) = 6,000 / 18,000 = 0.333 kg, i.e. about 333 g per person per day.
Reduction. (400 - 333) / 400 = 67 / 400 = 16.75 per cent cut below the prescribed relief scale.
Judgement to record. A 333 g cereal ration is below the notified 400 g scale and leaves no margin for waste, spillage, cooking loss or the extra needs of pregnant women, infants and the elderly. The correct recommendation is not to silently cut the scale but to:
- indent 1,200 kg at once and flag it as emergent, citing the 600 kg/day burn rate;
- record the exact date on which stock falls below one day's requirement, so responsibility for delay is documented;
- propose a cooked-meal kitchen only if dal, oil and fuel are separately assured, since cereal alone is not a ration;
- inform the SDO in writing that any scale below 400 g is a deviation requiring his written order, so the police post is not later blamed for short-weighing. Recovering shortfall by unnoticed under-weighing is exactly the failure this register exists to prevent.
3. Is the water arrangement adequate for 1,500 persons? What should the officer write about it?
Read the worked answer
Arithmetic. At the camp norm of 3 litres per person per day: 1,500 x 3 = 4,500 litres, against a 5,000-litre tanker refilled once daily. Margin = 500 litres, about 11 per cent. So the drinking-and-cooking norm is met, but only just.
Sensitivity check. The margin survives only 166 extra persons (500 / 3). Jharkhand monsoon arrivals are not stable: another 300 persons would need 5,400 litres, a deficit of 400 litres in a single day. The camp should therefore hold a standby refill arrangement, not merely a full tank.
The larger point. Three litres per person per day covers drinking and cooking only. Once bathing, washing of utensils, latrine use and cleaning after a flood are counted, requirement rises several-fold, and a single 5,000-litre tanker is plainly inadequate. The officer should write that the 3-litre norm is a survival floor, not an adequacy standard, and ask for a second tanker plus storage, and should record the time of each refill so that any day of short supply is on the file.
Also flag that a tanker refilled once a day creates a peak-hour queue, which is a crowd-control and safety risk at a camp holding 1,500 people, and recommend a fixed distribution point with a queue barricade.