The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : `Govt. must extend help to the NGOs'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 02, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

`Govt. must extend help to the NGOs'

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI, JAN. 1. The People's Art and Literary Association has urged the Government to extend its help to Non-Government Organisations spearheading relief measures for Tsunami affected victims in the coastal districts against all odds.

Though relief materials, especially dresses and food, were pouring in, the supply was not regulated resulting in slip-shod distribution. Some relief camps were flooded with materials while there were many without access to the relief materials. The Government, besides regulating the supply of relief materials, should distribute blankets, towels and dhoties, through the Cooptex, in order to protect the displaced victims from cold conditions. Starting of information centres at important places will help the people to know whether their near and dear ones had died or survived in the catastrophe. The dead bodies buried along the coast should be identified and their photographs must be kept as records taluk-ise for streamlining remedial measures. Likewise, the particulars of the survivors and those missing should also be computerised.

In a statement issued here today, M. Ramdasu, PALA secretary, assailed the Centre and the State for not following their "hasty" announcements of deployment of armed forces and initiation of relief measures on war footing with action. The delayed response by the official machinery precipitated the agony of the survivors in various relief camps. Wounded people in the camps were yet to be provided with medical treatment, he alleged.

There was an immediate need for providing free communication facilities in the relief camps, he said, adding that the departments of Revenue, Health, Public Works, Communication, Transport, and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board should get their acts together to evolve a comprehensive mechanism to provide relief to the suffering victims.

For extending medical help in a sustained manner, the Government should immediately appoint adequate doctors and nurses from amongst those who had enlisted their names with the Employment Exchange. The Government should also consider replacing the damaged fishing equipment of the fishermen free of cost and construct quality houses for those rendered houseless, at safe distances from sea.

Normality could be restored if the affected people are provided with relief at the rate of Rs. 10,000 each besides vessels, stove, rice, kerosene and groceries.

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