The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Resettlement policy by month-end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Resettlement policy by month-end

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEB. 7. The post-tsunami resettlement policy will be in place by the month-end and all construction activity completed by mid-March, Relief Commissioner R. Santhanam said today.

This was one of the priority areas of the Government, the others being restoration of livelihood, building permanent shelters for the displaced with the help of the community and creating awareness of disaster management.He was speaking at an experience-sharing symposium on tsunami relief efforts organised by the United Nations Development Programme in association with the Tamil Nadu IAS Officers' Association here.

Mr. Santhanam turned the attention of the audience, comprising bureaucrats, representatives of non-governmental organisations, international agencies and the media, to certain issues that needed fixing.

A lot of complaints had come about the temporary shelters and they had to be rectified. Ensuring adequate drainage and toilet facilities, identifying the genuinely affected families and ensuring coordination of all relief work done by the State and the NGOs needed attention.

Multidisciplinary teams

He identified the formation of multidisciplinary teams in each district, the strong leadership in the State and its committed bureaucracy as the key factors in ensuring a largely satisfactory relief package.

Presenting the Cuddalore experience, Additional Collector (Relief), Anu George, said extensive damage had been wrought along the 57.5-km coastal stretch. The initial phase of rescue of survivors and burial of bodies had given way to mass cleaning operations, building movements among women self help group members, counselling, arresting sea erosion, planning the future of the children and facilitating professional rehabilitation.

The Nagapattinam experience was outlined by Vivek Harinarian, Information Technology Secretary, who was part of the special teams working in that district. He said it helped that the Government had empowered officials on the field to make instant decisions and sanction funds immediately. While access to many affected areas was the problem initially, the district moved on to rehabilitation issues.

The United Nations Children's Fund representative, Tim Schaffter, said the State had played a great role in protecting children affected by tsunami and ensuring that no trafficking took place. The challenges ahead were water and sanitation, malnutrition and increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

Raju Rajagopal of the Bhoomika Trust wondered whether there could be an attempt to balance the urge of donors to spend money and the needs of the community. He suggested that funds be entrusted in a community trust, for being used as and when the need arose.

Members and office-bearers of the Tamil Nadu IAS Officers' Association and others who were part of the relief efforts participated in a discussion that followed. It was suggested that multipurpose national ID cards be distributed to obtain accurate population figures.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu