Navalady families' tsunami woes continue

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 October 2006, 00:24 GMT]
Families of tsunami destroyed Navalady in Batticaloa District picketed in front of the offices of the Batticaloa Municipal Council, Manmunai North Regional Secretariat and Kacheri Planning Secretariat Wednesday at 10:00 a.m., demanding permanent housing, civil society sources in Batticaloa said. More than 250 families have been living with only basic facilities in make shift tents in Thiraimadu, Batticaloa for the past two years.

The Tsunami affected refugees complained that even though lands have been allocated for building permanent housing two years ago, no construction activity has taken place.

Building of access roads, and providing access to electricity and drinking water facilities for the new sites have yet to begin and will further push back the completion date for the housing, the demonstrators said in a printed notice.

They protested that with the onset of monsoon rains their current temporary accommodation in tents at Thiraimadu will likely be flooded and will become uninhabitable.

Batticaloa District Government Agent (GA), C.Punniamoorthy, responsible for the welfare of the refugees, discussed the issues affecting the refugees with TamilNet:

Question: What have the authorities done to help the Navalady refugees?

GA: With the assistance of Non Governmental Organizations, we have provided temporary accommodation for the affected people of Navalady, and supplied them with the basic needs. In addition the government has ear marked for Rs.250,000 for each home while the NGOs would be spending an additional 300,000 rupees for constructing permanent housing. The IDPs stand to benefit by this program and picketing only helps to sour the atmosphere.

Question: You assured the people of this area several times that you will address their grievances promptly, yet housing situation has not changed.

GA: At the beginning they asked to be provided with temporary accommodation and we fulfilled their request and they still continue to reside there. Later they asked us to provide them with separate lands for each family and we have taken action to select some crown lands and to prepare the deeds for those plot of lands. Main roads have been constructed to reach these areas but the side roads are yet to be constructed. However, I have taken steps to construct them as soon as possible. For example in Thiruchenthoor, [another Tsunami affected area] work has begun for construction of houses for the affected people and we have come to the stage of window-level. Many NGOS have offered to assist in this construction. We can only try to help to obtain the assistance provided by the government but cannot be present at the construction site and work along with the affected people. I have even made use of my personal influence to obtain funds for the construction of a main road in this area.

Question: The affected people have complained that even though it is more than two years since Tsunami and even though funds have been allocated for the construction of more than 50 houses, not even the foundations have been laid. How true is this?

GA: The municipal council took the responsibility of construction these houses. Each house is valued at Rs.6,50,000. However none of the contractors have come forward to construct them. This is because of the fact that rising cost of raw materials will result only in a meagre profit for them. Consequently we told the affected people that we can provide them the money on instalment basis and they can take over the responsibility of constructing their own houses. However they have complained that they have no one to provide them with physical help.

Question: Thiraimadu is a low-lying land. Even last year they faced serious difficulties due to flooding. Have you finished constructing drainage facilities for these areas?

GA: German government has come forward to construct these facilities but because of the unstable situation on the ground the effort is temporarily suspended. As soon as normalcy returns they will resume their work. Meanwhile, the temporary accommodation provided to them has been re-constructed.