Kerala - Alappuzha   

Misinformation campaign alleged on tsunami relief

ALAPPUZHA: Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran has said that a false campaign with political overtones was being propagated in the coastal constituency of Alappuzha over the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project (TRP).

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Rajendran said the State government had announced it in the Assembly and submitted all necessary documents during the June-July Budget session that work on the TRP was 80 per cent complete. The State had even invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to dedicate the completed project in December at Karunagapally in Kollam.

However, certain vested interests, with political mileage in mind ahead of the November 7 by-polls, were spreading canards that progress on tsunami rehabilitation work was tardy and that the State had failed to utilise the funds sanctioned by the Union Government. The truth was that rehabilitation work and related projects would be over at least by February 2010, ahead of the Centres deadline of March 31, 2010, he said.

The first phase of tsunami rehabilitation after the December 2004 tragedy had begun with the Tsunami Emergency Rehabilitation Project, initiated by the previous United Democratic Front government with an estimate of Rs.255.69 crore. The Asian Development Bank funded and monitored project was almost complete with the bill settling process on. A sum of Rs.47.17 crore was to arrive from the Centre once the bills were settled, he said.

The second phase was the TRP, initiated by the Left Democratic Front government with an estimated outlay of Rs.1,148 crore, an amount that was already sanctioned by the Centre. Though this project was 80 per cent over, vested interests were unnecessarily dragging the project into the by-election campaign to mislead the coastal public, the Minister said.

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