CHENNAI: As many as 48,000 tsunami-affected people still live in temporary shelters, nearly two years after the tsunami that hit the Tamil Nadu coast rendered them homeless. Land acquisition for building houses for 500 of the affected in Nagapattinam is yet to be completed. During a recent review of the reconstruction efforts, the slow progress came in for serious criticism. Now, the Rural Development department has been given the task of chipping in and building a substantial number of houses in Nagapattinam.

While Cuddalore has fared better in providing permanent shelters and livelihood measures, the progress in most other parts has left a lot to be desired.

One official justified the slow pace of works at Nagapattinam saying that the scale of operation was too large; land was just not available and there were too many coordination problems. Besides, the lack of ready availability of building material was a serious issue.

But another official said the conflicting opinions and orders on reconstruction, the involvement of too many departments without any serious attempts at coordination at the top were among the more serious issues.

For example, there was a lot of focus on `secondary' issues such as provision for underground drainage in a place such as Akkaraipettai, one of the worst affected fishing hamlets next to Nagapattinam.

Nagapattinam town does not have underground sewage system.

Also, one of the conflicting orders that reportedly emanated from the Revenue Administration department related to construction of houses. While the first one laid down the norms to build the 325 sqft house, a second order said that houses should be modelled on how non-governmental organisations were building in that vicinity. This was later withdrawn, an official involved in the reconstruction efforts said, because some NGOs were building much better than the specifications in a few places.

Overestimation

About 1,000 families in Nagapattinam, who were earlier included in the list of beneficiaries, will not get new homes as their houses had not suffered damage to any extent. They were included in the earlier list "by oversight." The District Collector has made a recommendation to this effect after a recent review of tsunami rehabilitation measures, an official said.

There was gross over-estimation of the number of houses damaged by tsunami. The initial estimates were about 1.3 lakh houses and the World Bank was approached for funding. The bank sanctioned just over Rs.1,200 crore, one source said. But when the real numbers came, it was found that officials had overestimated by about a lakh.

Ever since, the Revenue administration has been suggesting a project to ensure shelter security to all habitations within a km of the coastline. Though this idea was floated in the beginning of the year, the proposal is not yet ready.

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