Tsunami relief units’ work over

Chennai: While NGOs and acti­vists are gearing up to mourn the ninth ann­iversary of tsunami victims this Thursday, the state government will be winding up the operations of several units that took up tsunami relief operations.

For instance, the tsu­nami project implementation unit at Guindy attached to the rural development and panchayat raj department has shed its human res­ources by 90 per cent and by next month, the entire unit will be cl­osed, official sources sa­id, explaining that relief works related to the tsunami have been completed by about 99 per cent; only file and doc­umentation works are now pending.

There were about 70 staff in the department. As relief projects were completed in almost all 13 coastal districts affe­cted by the tsunami, the staff were reverted to their original departm­ents and contracts of ca­s­ual labourers were not renewed as the project is almost over, an official source said.

However, post tsunami rehabilitation units will continue operations for some mo­re years and by next mo­nth, the prestigious Rs 1,481 crore coa­stal risk reduction project will gain momentum. The project, a brai­nchild of chief minister J. Jayalalithaa will take five years to complete and will cover 121 co­a­stal areas that are prone to natural disasters. “After the relief and rehabilitation mode, we are now into a prevention mode and the project will be supported by the World Bank,” a senior revenue department official said.

“In our area, most fishermen were provided ts­u­nami relief and the NGOs played a key role till 2006. Coastal hamlets in Mam­alla­pu­ram are deprived of infr­astru­cture and the coa­stal ri­sk reduction project wi­ll be a boon for fis­her­folk,”  said Rajesh, a fis­h­erman in Mamallapuram.