To add salt to injury, Thayalan Krisnasamy alleged, the aid a minister had promised has not been delivered.

FMT is withholding the name of the minister pending a comment.

The minister, Thayalan claimed, had praised volunteers for their work and promised to deliver aid. Until today, nothing has arrived, he said.

“Some came for five to 10 minutes, held up posters, distributed boxes of mineral water and took pictures. After that, we heard nothing,” he told FMT.

“Please, I need manpower. We’re short of volunteers and the ones we have now are tired. They have been working non-stop for seven days.”

Thayalan said the school took its own initiative to set up the centre, with the help of NGOs and individuals and had received no help from the federal and state governments.

Those in the relief centre are staying in 20 classrooms and 50 National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) tents.

Thayalan also claimed that Nadma did not directly provide the tents, but they were acquired with the help of an NGO. He said they had to do everything on their own.

“There is no civil servant here. We have our own health ministry, welfare ministry and women and community ministry.”

Thayalan said he had appealed to the authorities to take over as the volunteers were exhausted. However, he said the welfare department and health ministry had refused because they were understaffed.

“We can’t manage the huge number of flood victims,” he said.

Thayalan also claimed the armed forces, fire and rescue department and the civil defence department had only put up tents when a minister decided to visit the centre on the third day of the floods.

“Only when the media flocked to the site to cover (the flood), did they start to work.”