The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tirunelveli News : Nuclear plant comes to the rescue of victims

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Thursday, Jan 06, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli

Nuclear plant comes to the rescue of victims

By Our Staff Reporter

The Project Director, Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, S.K. Agrawal, presenting a cheque for Rs. 75,000 to Fr. M. John Britto at Idinthakarai on Wednesday.

TIRUNELVELI, JAN. 5. While many organisations and philanthropists across the country are concentrating on adequate supply of dresses, food articles, medicines, utensils etc. to tsunami victims, the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, in a bid boost the rehabilitation process, has donated Rs. 3 lakhs for the purchase of land to construct houses for people who lost their houses to the huge tidal waves triggered by underwater seismic activity.

Besides distributing a truckload of regular relief materials supplied by the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, the Project Director of KKNPP, S.K. Agrawal, today presented cheques for Rs.75, 000 each to parish priests of Koottapuli, Perumanal, Idinthakarai and Kooththankuzhi, all badly affected coastal hamlets around the KKNPP site.

According to a survey carried out by the parish priests of these villages after the natural calamity, 16 families of Perumanal lost their houses, while 120 houses at Kooththankuzhi were washed away due to the proximity to sea. Idinthakarai and Koottapuli villages had lost 100 houses each.

Though the Government had announced that the people who lost their houses to tsunami would get compensation, the victims have to look for new places to construct houses, as officials had strictly instructed them to build their new houses at a safe distance from the sea. Or else they would not get financial assistance from the Government, the officials say.

At this juncture, the KKNPP administration has come to the rescue of the homeless by giving financial assistance to purchase a land for the construction of new houses to these fishermen who are without a roof over the head. "The poorest beneficiaries would be selected by the parish priests concerned. Though this is a small contribution, it will help them a lot in buying a land to set-up a new colony for the people, who were rendered homeless by tsunami," said Mr. Agrawal, who has mobilised Rs.1.20 lakh, the amount mustered by the KKNPP employees by sacrificing a day's salary.

Accepting Mr. Agrawal's plea to generously donate for tsunami victims, `Fresseney', a French company, which is supplying some of the components to the ongoing construction of the 2 X 1000 MWe nuclear reactors at Koodankulam, has contributed Rs. 3 lakhs.

The people of Koottapuli have already identified one acre of land, costing about Rs. 1 lakh, to settle the homeless. "They need 50 cents more and we will take all efforts to mobilise some more money to buy that piece of land also so that the process will be completed," Mr. Agrawal said.

When he came out of the Idinthakarai parish priest's official residence after handing over the cheque for Rs. 75,000 to Fr. M. John Britto, the people appealed to Mr. Agrawal, a popular personality among the fishermen, to establish a small colony near their village for the homeless. "It is a good suggestion. We will contact some more people to get more aid for this project," he said.

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