Tsunami
toll mounts to 70,000
Chennai/Port
Blair: It may have taken place three days ago, but the
lament for the dead continues in a most heart rendering
manner here and in other parts of south eastern Asia. The
death toll of the tsunami disaster is closing in on the
70,000 mark, even as the UN has reportedly launched the
world's largest humanitarian relief operation. International
disaster assessment teams are arriving in the affected countries
and local agencies are distributing emergency aid. The disaster
zone is now being threatened by the possibility of a pandemic,
and a UN health agency has warned that the death toll could
double. Indonesia, which is close to the epicentre of Sunday's
earthquake that measured 9 on the Richter scale, has registred
a death toll of about 32,000 people with Aceh province being
the worst hit. In Sri Lanka, 25,000 lives have been snuffed
out by the huge fast-moving sea waves that rose from the
Indian Ocean after the biggest earthquake in 40 years struck
near Indonesia - 2,000 km away from the island nation.
Over
10,000 people have died in India with the Andamans and states
like Tamil Nadu and Kerala bearing the brunt of the deathly
earthquake-induced sea waves. Nearly 1,500 people were killed
in Thailand. In Malaysia 50 people were killed and a similar
number died in the Maldives. Tsunamis killed 30 people in
Myanmar and more than 100 people in Somalia, which is almost
5,000 km from the epicentre of the earthquake. In India,
where more than 10,000 people are feared dead, the worst
hit is the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands
in the Bay of Bengal and Tamil Nadu on India's southeast
coast. Three thousand people have been killed in the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands but there are fears that the death toll
here could also rise dramatically as thousands are still
missing. The Governor of Andaman and Nicobar islands has
now stressed the need for temporary shelters for those who
have been displaced as a result of Sunday's tsunami. In
Tamil Nadu over 5,000 people have died in the deadly sea
waves which struck south and south east Asia on the morning
after Christmas. Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu has suffered
heavily. About 3,500 people have died in this coastal town.
Indian
Tsunami death toll crosses 10,000 (Go
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Chennai:
Three days after the devastating Tsunami hit the southern
coast, authorities were still counting the dead whose number
has crossed 10,000 in India, including 7,000 in Tamil Nadu
alone, with several thousands missing in Andaman and Nicobar
islands. The toll in the other six Asian countries where
the disaster struck has mounted to 70,000. The worst hit
Indonesia accounted for 32,000 while in Sri Lanka it was
25,000. The local governments and the Centre mounted massive
relief and rehabilitation efforts to provide socour to those
who survived the Sunday disaster and rendered homeless and
fears of epidemic forced the authorities to take up inoculation
measures to prevent the spread of diseases. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh will make a two-day tour of the affected
areas in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh from tomorrow.
In Delhi, he visited the Home Ministry's Control Room where
the situation was being monitored to coordinate relief operations.
More state goverments, corporate bodies and individuals
offered money for rehabilitation efforts in the affected
areas.
PM
leaving for Tsunami-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, Andamans (Go
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by Pankaj Yadav
New
Delhi: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will fly to
Chennai this evening to have an aerial survey of the Tsunami-affected
areas. He is expected to fly out of the Indian capital at
around 8 p.m. After staying overnight in Chennai and talking
to top government functionaries of the state, he will have
an aerial survey of the affected areas for a couple of hours
in a chopper. He will also talk to the concerned state and
district officials to gather an idea about the total loss
of life and property. Singh is expected to leave for Andaman
and Nicobar Islands by a special flight on Thursday afternoon
or evening. After landing in Port Blair, he will board a
chopper to have an aerial survey of several isles where
the Centre government had not been able to even reach out.
The Prime Minister is expected to announce more monetary
relief after receiving a feedback from UPA chairperson Sonia
Gandhi and other ministers who have travelled these past
three days to assess the damageto life and property. Singh
would be visiting the Tsunami-hit areas for the first time.
A battery of senior Congressmen and union ministers, including
Sonia, have been camping in such areas for the past three
days. Among the opposition leaders the prominent ones who
have visited the affected areas include BJP chief and former
deputy PM L.K. Advani. The UPA government has already announced
an interim relief of 500 crore rupees in the wake of the
drastic natural calamity.
PM
rules out Tsunami cess, says it's a national calamity (Go
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New
Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today described
Sunday's Tsunami attack in south eastern India as a national
calamity, but ruled out the possibility of levying a one
per cent relief cess, saying it was not necessary. He was
reacting to an earlier report that quoted Finance Minister
P.Chidambaram as saying that a cess could be levied to build
up a relief kitty. "This is a national calamity," the Prime
Minister said after visiting the North Block where a round-the-clock
control room has been set up by the Home Ministry to monitor
and coordinate relief and rehabilitation operations in the
tsunami-hit states and Union territories.
Chidambaram
warns of tsunami relief cess (Go
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New
Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the
government is thinking about imposing a one per cent cess
on all individuals in order to ensure that there are sufficient
funds for providing relief to victims of Sunday's tsunami
attack. The natural calamity has so claimed about 10,000
lives in India, and it is estimated that the death toll
will go up.
