The Hindu : Other States / Pondicherry News : Vilasrao Deshmukh to visit Karaikal on January 8

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Tuesday, Jan 04, 2005

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Vilasrao Deshmukh to visit Karaikal on January 8

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, JAN. 3. The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, will visit Karaikal on January 8 to assess the tsunami damage and to announce schemes his Government would take up in the villages.

Stating this at a press conference here today, the Pondicherry Pradesh Congress Committee president, V. Narayanasamy, MP, said the Pondicherry Administration had already approached the Maharashtra Government for designing and constructing houses for fishermen.

In Karaikal, a vast stretch of government and temple land was available and housing schemes could be taken up there.

He said Mr. Deshmukh would hold discussions with the Chief Minister, N. Rangasamy, and his Cabinet colleagues on relief and rehabilitation works.

Mr. Narayanasamy said he had spoken to the Karnataka Chief Minister over the phone yesterday requesting adoption of some villages.

The Maharashtra and Mumbai Congress committees had also expressed interest in providing relief and adopting villages in the Pondicherry and Karaikal regions.

The Karnataka Chief Minister had already sent Rs. 2-crore worth relief materials to Karaikal, he said.

Panel set up

The Pondicherry Administration had constituted a relief and rehabilitation committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Rangasamy. The Committee has as its members Ministers, MPs and MLAs of constituencies in which the tsunami-hit villages were located.

The Congress leader said the Administration was requested to exercise utmost vigil to ensure that assistance not reached middlemen.

AICC supervision

The Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee, Captain Praveen Davar, who was also present at the press conference, said he and two other Secretaries, Naresh Rawal and Hari Prasad, MP, had been deputed by the party leader, Sonia Gandhi, to supervise the relief works. The Union Territory Administration had been implementing relief works commendably. He said he was sending reports on the relief works to Ms. Sonia Gandhi.

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