The Hindu : Other States / Pondicherry News : More NGOs come forward to construct houses for tsunami-hit

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Sunday, Jan 16, 2005

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More NGOs come forward to construct houses for tsunami-hit

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, JAN.15. With the Government of Maharashtra and a number of non-governmental agencies from outside Pondicherry coming forward to construct houses and also (in some cases) adopt a few villages for rehabilitation of tsunami-hit villagers, the Union Territory administration now has to decide whether it should do the construction work or entrust it to the agencies after allotting them sites.

Participation sought

According to a source, the administration was prepared to welcome participation of any agency. But all aspects of allowing the construction of houses by the NGOs would have to be studied before a final decision was taken.

The Government wants houses to be constructed at safer places and the sites to be at least 200 metres away from the coastline so that there was no risk to fisher folk in future.

It has hit upon a plan to purchase temple land and also utilise the Government-owned poromboke land wherever available.

"The houses will be ready in another twelve months and till then the administration expects that the displaced families would carry out repairs to the structures the families had been using. A cash relief of Rs. 10,000 had also been announced for each family to carry out repairs wherever feasible. This amount is restricted to fishermen's hamlets only," said an informed source. There is also a demand from non-fishermen's residential colonies that as their houses had also suffered cracks and damages under the attack of the tsunami they too should be paid cash relief of Rs. 10,000.

There is a general feeling among the policy-makers that individual housing units alone would be justified, as construction of tenements would take time.

Boat repair

The administration has now announced payment of cash relief for repairing the damaged boats and the assistance ranged between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 4.5 lakhs depending on the nature of the vessel and the extent of damage. A sum of Rs. 43 crores would be disbursed in this regard.

A section of the Ministers pointed out that instead of giving the relief in cash the required boats as such could be supplied with full statutory formalities.

The contract workers engaged by boat-owners have also started demanding that they be paid cash compensation for loss of jobs as no fishing activity had been resumed even though it is around twenty days since the havoc hit the villages.

Coordinated approach

There is a general feeling among the legislators that a coordinated approach was important. Pondicherry was virtually flooded with relief materials from Karnataka, Maharashtra and a few other States either at the State-Government level or through the Congress.

Village-level committees, involving the local leaders and also the legislators concerned, should be formed to carry out relief and rehabilitation work, said a Congress functionary.

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