The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Centre will extend all assistance: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Centre will extend all assistance: Manmohan

By Our Staff Reporter

NAGERCOIL, DEC. 30. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said today that the Centre would extend all kind of assistance to the tsunami-affected fishermen in Tamil Nadu so that they could lead a new life.

After consoling the relatives of the victims of Sunday's disaster at St. Mary's Higher Secondary School in Colachel, Dr. Singh said the Government was committed to providing assistance to fishermen who had lost their kith and kin, houses and other implements. It would and try to provide all facilities to the fishermen to undertake fishing.

One cannot compensate the precious lives of human being. But at the same time, the Central Government will take care of those who lost the breadwinners, children and widows. Necessary steps will be taken to provide boats, implements and for the construction of houses, he said.

Central allocation

Later, Dr. Singh told presspersons that the Centre had allotted Rs. 500 crores for the National Calamity Contingency Fund for relief and rehabilitation. Another Rs. 200 crores had been allotted for construction of houses.

The Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government each will give Rs. 1 lakh to the families of the affected fishermen. Regarding the special package for fishermen of the State, Dr. Singh said the Union Finance Minister would do the needful.

Asked about the relief works undertaken by the State Government, Dr. Singh said that he was visiting the affected areas to find out how best the Centre could help the affected people

Earlier, he visited the Kannikkai Matha church near Maramadi and the Reefa mosque near Colachal where mass burial took place.

The Union Minister for Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, and the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, accompanied the Prime Minister. The Health Minister, N. Thalavai Sundaram, the Lok Sabha MP, A.V. Bellarmine, the Collector, Ramesh Chand Meena, and the Secretary, Department of Planning and Development, K.S. Sribati, received the Prime Minister.

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