The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : World Bank, ADB to discuss rehabilitation issue with Centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

World Bank, ADB to discuss rehabilitation issue with Centre

By Our Special Correspondent,

CHENNAI, JAN.18 . Senior representatives of the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will meet the Finance Secretary tomorrow in New Delhi and discuss issues relating to the role of the two institutions in extending assistance in possible ways for relief and rehabilitation in the tsunami-hit areas in the country.

Shortly after holding discussions with the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, at the Secretariat today on the reconstruction and rehabilitation programme, Michael F.Carter and Louis de Jonghe, Country Directors, India, of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank respectively, told reporters that their preliminary survey would be followed by a detailed technical mission by the end of the month to arrive at the overall size of the possible package for reconstruction and rehabilitation.

Mr. Carter said their visit to some of the affected areas in the State was intended to have a first hand view of the extent of damage. The discussions with the Chief Minister showed that the State Government's thinking on the situation was similar their line of thinking. The damage had several dimensions, he said, adding that providing housing and restoring livelihood for the affected people were among the most urgent needs while measures to ensure protection against any disaster of this kind and disaster management system fell under the long-term measures.

Complex task

Describing the tsunami disaster as a terrible tragedy, he said evolving a rehabilitation programme was a complex task and the long-term reconstruction might take two or three years. In the next stage, the two agencies, along with the United Nations, would launch a joint assessment mission. The WB and ADB functionaries would hold talks with the authorities concerned to evolve the programme and the quantum of assistance in soft terms possible.

Mr. Jonghe said: "We are looking forward to providing fast track assistance to the maximum extent possible." Basically it would be assistance for housing and livelihood programmes, besides infrastructure development. On the State Government's plea for assistance to the tune of Rs.5,000 crores for implementing the coastal zone protection scheme (CZPS), he said, "will be one area which we will be looking at."

Both Mr. Jonghe and Mr. Carter said they were extremely impressed by the way the State Government had been providing relief to the affected people within a short period.

An official release said that Ms. Jayalalithaa had brought to the notice of the WB and ADB teams that since the majority of the affected families were fisherfolk, who had lost both their means of livelihood and houses, a liberal scheme of support was necessary. She invited the two funding agencies to assist the Government to take up the CZPS.

The Country Directors of the WB and ADB said they would seriously consider the Chief Minister's request for the best technical expertise to find a lasting solution to the problem of seawater intrusion in Nagapattinam district and modernisation of the coastal fisheries economy.

The meeting was attended by Mohan Nagarajan and Shyamal Sarkar of the World Bank, Alex Jorgenson of the ADB, State Ministers of Public Works, Finance, Chief Secretary, Finance Secretary and Special Commissioner and Commissioner of Revenue Administration.

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