10 years on, constructive work far from over

Specifics of disaster preparedness plan not yet available

December 26, 2014 09:56 am | Updated April 07, 2016 05:47 am IST - PUDUCHERRY:

A view of tsunami permanent dwelling units built under the tsunami Rehabilitation Project at Nallavadu village near Puducherry on Thursday. Photo: S.S. Kumar

A view of tsunami permanent dwelling units built under the tsunami Rehabilitation Project at Nallavadu village near Puducherry on Thursday. Photo: S.S. Kumar

Even 10 years after the tsunami struck and left a trail of destruction, the Puducherry government still has a lot of unfinished work on its hands in terms of construction of houses for the displaced fisher folk families and plugging the gaps on the disaster preparedness front.

A visit to Nallavadu brought to the fore the sluggish progress in rehabilitation works with most of the families living in their impoverished dwelling units located close to the sea.

Scores of surviving families in the coastal village of Nallavadu near here, who were thrown out of their dwelling units after the killer waves struck on December 26, 2004, are now desperately waiting to be rehabilitated and to move into their new homes.

“The government has no full-fledged and fool proof record of the number of families. Although there are around 1,000 families in Nallavadu, the government had worked out rehabilitation plan to cover only 300 families. The fishermen had also avoided moving into the permanent dwelling units as the government had failed to build houses for all victims. Rehabilitation should be taken up for all the affected families at the same time,” said Kuppuraj, a fisherman of Nallavadu.

A few workers were engaged in laying sewerage pipelines while windowpanes and other amenities are yet to be provided in the dwelling units. The delay in rehabilitation is more traumatic than the impact caused by the tsunami.

A senior official in the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) said that the rehabilitation works had been planned to cover families living close to the shore while families who had claimed for housing assistance had relocated to other areas. The PIA is the authorised nodal agency of the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project.

Another tsunami affected village of Veerampattinam also presented a sorry scenario with houses constructed by the Maharashtra Government developing cracks. Most of the portions including the terrace are crumbling and the residents have been left to fend for themselves.

However on the disaster preparedness front, whether the government is fully equipped to rise to any exigency as preparatory works to handle a situation witnessed in 2004 also appears to be lacking. Although mock tsunami drills are being held once in a while to test the readiness of the district administration to an emergency and gauge its ability to take remedial steps, a specific action plan is not yet available.

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