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News
India's disaster management skills praised
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 6:
India's disaster management capabilities have come up for all-round praise from renowned tsunami and global warming specialist, Dr Tad Murty.
“I would place India's disaster management skills and response mechanism among the top 10 in the world,” Dr Murty, who is on a visit here, told Business Line.
Mechanism to monitor rehabilitation projects
A separate mechanism has been created with headquarters in Cuddalore for monitoring and management of rehabilitation projects in cyclone ‘Thane' affected areas.
K. Veera Raghava Rao, Additional Collector, took charge as Project Director (Thane Rehabilitation), in the presence of Collector Rajendra Ratnoo, on the new office premises located at Mariya Soosai Nagar on Friday.
Later, Mr. Rao told reporters that the ‘project management unit' would have four separate wings for taking care of issues relating to agricultural crops, horticultural crops, agricultural engineering devices and rural development.
Besides following the broad guidelines issued by the government, Mr. Rao would also act on the guidance of the Collector. He would be visiting affected areas to have first-hand knowledge of crop damage.
HC tells Centre, govt to spell out relief measures on Thane
Chennai, Feb 29 (PTI): The Madras High Court today directed the Centre and Tamil Nadu government to spell out the specific relief measures being taken by them to alleviate hardships of those hit by cyclone 'Thane' in the state in the last week of December 2011. The First Bench of Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam, gave the direction on a petition by advocate Ananthi Saravanan, seeking relief for victims of the December 30 cyclone in Cuddalore and neighbouring Villupuram districts. The court directed Saravanan to serve the petition to counsel for the Centre and state government 'to enable them to file their respective affidavits, stating specifically as to what steps are being taken by the respondents for giving relief to the cyclone victims and also a preliminary report. Detailing the havoc caused in the two districts due to the cyclone between Dec 27 and 30, the petitioner, a resident of Cuddalore district and victim, claimed it had destroyed over 3.49 lakh houses and thatched structures, besides disrupting power supply, communication systems and thousands of hectares of various fruits and nuts including jackfruit, mango, palm oil trees, and groundnut. Standing paddy crop on over 96,000 hectares and 30,469 hectares of cashew were damaged, he said, adding that about 40 persons had died in the state, about 30 in Cuddalore district alone and five in Villupuram district. The losses suffered by the state due to high velocity winds and rain was about Rs 5,000 crore, the petitioner said. Saravanan sought a direction to the government to pay Rs 20,000 per hectare per year to farmers for the next 10 years, a mediclaim policy of upto Rs five lakh each year per affected family for 10 years and Rs 10,000 for each agricultural worker who did not possess land,for the next five years.
Ennore Expressway to have three new groynes
DEEPA H. RAMAKRISHNAN
In an effort to help accumulation of sand along the Ennore Expressway, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started work on construction of the first of three groynes at a total cost of Rs.8 crore. The three structures of 150-m length each would require 1.5 lakh tonnes of rocks of various sizes, including those weighing four tonnes. According to sources, the work is expected to be completed before the onset of north-east monsoon.
“We have started work on the northern side. Once this is completed, work on the next groynes on the south would be taken up,” an official of the NHAI said. “These structures were planned for protecting human habitations in the area near the Pattinathar Samadhi,” the official said. The structures would also help to reduce instant wave energy, particularly during monsoon and arrest sea erosion.
Short film on relief works
The Public Relations Department has made a short film on relief and rehabilitation works of the State government in cyclone-affected areas.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article2937119.ece
