Trinco wants Govt. funds for tsunami houses

By Sinniah Gurunathan from Trincomalee

The Trincomalee district secretariat has sought financial assistance from the central government to construct some 2,000 permanent houses out of a total requirement of 5862 houses required for the tsunami-affected people.

Trincomalee’s Additional Government Agent A. Nadarajah said the request for financial assistance became necessary as several NGOs who soon after the tsunami pledged to assist the affected people in the Trincomalee district have failed to make good on their commitment.

Mr. Nadarajah who is in charge of tsunami rehabilitation work said up to last week about 1,994 permanent houses had been handed over and 614 houses are expected to be handed over to beneficiary families when water and electricity supplies are made available.

He said the rest of the houses would be constructed when the central government provided the necessary funds. Mr. Nadarajah said the District Secretariat has sought nearly Rs. 750 million from the central government and under this scheme the chief householder of every affected family would be given Rs. 350,000 for the construction of a permanent house. He said the central government had agreed to allocate Rs. 400 million for this purpose and the District Secretariat has released Rs. 20 million for the construction of 100 permanent houses.

When the giant waves ravaged the coastal areas of the Trincomalee district on the day after the 2004 Christmas, some 973 people including women and children were killed, about 4,382 injured and ten reported missing and some 126,676 people from 30,545 families displaced.