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Sunday, Feb 25, 2007
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Tsunami funds: panel for Vigilance probe

Special Correspondent

REPORT: The former Chief Secretary M. Vijayanunni submitting a report on tsunami fund utilisation to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan in the capital on Saturday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The commission headed by the former Chief Secretary M. Vijayanunni, which inquired into various complaints relating to the utilisation of the tsunami relief fund, is understood to have recommended a Vigilance probe into the matter.

Dr. Vijayanunni handed over the commission report to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Saturday.

Dr. Vijayanunni was tight-lipped about the contents of the report when journalists met him after the submission of the report. He, however, said he did not receive sufficient cooperation from Government officials during the inquiry.

Sources said the inquiry unearthed large-scale diversion of tsunami funds for other purposes in the State. The fund was utilised for activities even in Idukki, Kottayam and Wayanad districts, which do not have a coastline and had, therefore, remained untouched by the tsunami calamity of December 2004.

According to sources, the report says that the Fisheries Department spent Rs.11.4 crore out of Rs.20 crore it had received from the fund for purposes not meant for taking relief to tsunami-affected areas. The Water Resources Department spent Rs.20 crore for building seawalls, but a major share of this work was in coastal stretches untouched by the tsunami.

The report, according to sources, refers to large sums from the fund spent in the Puthuppally Assembly constituency represented by Oommen Chandy, who was the then Chief Minister.

The commission had sought from all District Collectors in the State the particulars of the amount received and spent by them from the tsunami fund, but only four of them responded to the query, sources said.

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