The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : 54 more hectares bought for tsunami rebuilding works

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 31, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

54 more hectares bought for tsunami rebuilding works

Special Correspondent

Hurdles in land acquisition have been cleared; rehabilitation work expedited

TAKING STOCK: Finance Minister K.Anbazhagan addressing the first meeting of the State-level Steering Committee at the Secretariat in Chennai on Wednesday. Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin, Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam and oth er Ministers are in the picture. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: The Government has bought an additional 54 hectares for tsunami rebuilding works in Tamil Nadu and has speeded up other rehabilitation works in coastal districts.

This was disclosed at a meeting on Wednesday of the high-level Steering Committee, headed by Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan and Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin, to review the progress of tsunami rehabilitation works.

As for the tardy construction of shelters for those displaced by the tsunami, various districts reported that hurdles in land acquisition had been cleared and construction could be started in these areas.

A total of 3122 houses were handed over to beneficiaries since the last review meeting, held on June 24, and sanction had been granted for handing over 192 homes belonging to the Town and Country Planning Department.

The task of building over 1,000 buses that no NGO had come forward to take up was resolved with BSNL offering to sponsor them.

Fee exemption

Other schemes that have been implemented over the months include fee exemption for children of the affected areas even for the academic year 2006-2007 and sanctioning of Rs.110.46 crore for providing additional nets, storage units, life jackets and lamps to fishermen.

Agriculture Minister Veerapandi Arumugam, Revenue and Law Minister I. Periasamy, Housing and Slum Clearance Board Minister Suba. Thangavelan, Environment Minister T.P.M. Moideen Khan, Forests Minister N. Selvaraj, Fisheries Minister K.P.P. Samy, Highways Minister M.P. Saminathan, Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy and heads of various departments participated in the meeting.

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