The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : It's now for Tamil Nadu to implement tsunami package: Chidambaram

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

It's now for Tamil Nadu to implement tsunami package: Chidambaram

Special Correspondent

World Bank and the Asian Development Bank sanctioned Rs. 2,671 crores.

CHENNAI: : With the Planning Commission and the Centre clearing a Rs. 10,200-crore infrastructure reconstruction programme, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, has expressed the hope that States can get started soon.

Over the longer term, the States will have to rebuild the infrastructure they lost in the December 26 tsunami and the package will be implemented as part of the Plan, he said in an interview here on Monday.

The Centre released an immediate relief and rehabilitation package soon after the tsunami. Tamil Nadu was allotted Rs. 2,347 crores. Subsequently, multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank sanctioned Rs. 2,671 crores.

A World Bank team visited Tamil Nadu recently and it was for the State Government to implement this package now.

Asked about the complaints and reservations in the State about the livelihood restoration package for fishermen, Mr. Chidambaram said the implementation was slow in the beginning but it picked up later. The State had availed itself of over Rs. 34 crores as subsidy and Rs. 33.87 crores as loan in the joint programme and another Rs. 34.60 crores as subsidy alone, without the loan component (see chart). There were no pending applications anywhere and the banks were ready to clear an application within 48 hours of its submission.

To a question on the economic viability of the Sethusamudram canal project, the Minister said: "You should not go merely by the Internal Rate of Return. One must look at un-factored growth, not the linear growth path alone. If you go by the potential for geometric growth and externalities, it becomes very viable.

"We have externalities such as national security, coastal shipping and anti-smuggling that must also be factored."

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