The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Their fight for survival continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 31, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Their fight for survival continues

Krishna Velupillai

CHENNAI: Three years down the line, the tsunami is only a distant memory for most, but many who suffered its wrath continue to struggle for survival. While the government and those concerned with rehabilitation and reconstruction work seem to have made much progress in most areas, Chennai city itself presents a different story.

For a group of 111 families in Eranavur, memories of loss of life, livelihood and shelter are still raw.

These families may be the only ones still living in temporary shelter with permanent shelter nowhere on the horizon.

They display their tsunami survivor token, but what underlies this is a display of helplessness.

Programme Officer, Action Aid, Alvino R.M. said they constructed the houses in June 2005, to last for a maximum period of one year. Now almost all the houses and the other facilities, including latrines, have been torn down as the thousand plus families have either been given houses or have moved out, but these families continue to live amidst the ruins.

Special Officer on Duty, Tsunami, C.V. Shankar said that initially there were supposed to be around 1,745 families (moved from Kargil Nagar — the first temporary shelter site for North Chennai survivors — after a fire accident.)

“But when we conducted a survey, we found only 991 families. These families were given houses built in Thondaiyarpet and Thilakarnagar,” he said.

The 111 families, who were not included, say that they were not on the location at the particular time when the survey was conducted and accuse the government of not verifying the number of families properly.

S. Mumtaj, a former resident of Anna Nagar, said that they had been told by the tahsildar that they would receive houses a long time ago. “Now they want us out and tell us that they will give us rent money for us to find rented accommodation.”

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