New Delhi, December 29
Stating that the Centre was treating tsunami disaster as a “national calamity”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today ruled out imposition of any cess “as of now” to mop up resources.
“This is a national calamity...We are fully geared to cope with the situation and no efforts will be spared to extend all possible help to the affected people,” Dr Singh told newspersons 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 areas.
“As of now, it is not necessary,” the Prime Minister said when asked whether the Centre is planning to impose cess to generate resources to meet the calamity.
Asserting that New Delhi is capable of coping with the situation on its own, the Prime Minister sought to clarify that the government had not “refused” foreign aid.
“We are not refusing foreign aid...We are very grateful to the gesture shown to us by our friendly countries...as of now we can cope with the situation with our own resources... when we feel we need it we will approach them,” Dr Singh said.
The Prime Minister, who is leaving tonight on a two-day tour to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh to assess the ground situation in the tsunami-hit areas, spent about one-hour in the control room and took stock of the relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken so far.
He was briefed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Union Home Secretary Dhirendra Kumar and other senior officials of the Home Ministry, who are manning the 24-hour control room.
Meanwhile, wary of outbreak of epidemic in tsunami-hit areas, the Centre said a massive operation had been launched to prevent it as the total number of people affected by the devastating earthquake and tidal waves was put at staggering 8.77 lakh and damage estimated to be worth thousands of crores of rupees.
After a meeting of Group of Ministers (GoM), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to review rescue and relief operations, the government asserted that all tourists, including Americans, had been evacuated.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee also emphasised that the government had not refused foreign assistance for the disaster.
“We are making efforts to prevent outbreak of diseases,” he said, adding in this direction mass
inoculation was being undertaken besides supply of clean drinking water to the ravaged areas.
While the death toll in the disaster is estimated to be 10,000, Mukherjee put the official figure of dead at 6,974, of which Tamil Nadu alone accounted for 6,073. He put the death toll of Andaman and Nicobar at 124, saying full details were not available so far.
Noting that the Prime Minister had described the tragedy as a “national calamity” although it had not been declared so because of “some technicalities involved”, Mr Mukherjee said the relief and rescue operations were the largest since Independence, involving 25 aircraft, 30 helicopters, 30 warships and over 400 troops besides civil administration.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil said his deputy Shriprakash Jaiswal would be leaving for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands shortly to supervise the relief and rehabilitation operations. “If needed, he will stay back there to supervise,” Mr Patil said.
Brushing aside the criticism that VVIPs should not visit the tsunami-hit areas as it hampered relief operations, Mr Patil said his visit along with the Defence Minister was essential to have first-hand information about the damage and to prioratise the relief and rescue operations.
Asked about contradictory reports emanating about missing persons in the tsunami-hit areas, the Home Minister said “it was very difficult to assess the exact number of missing persons....and we have to take it with a pinch of salt some reports saying that 45,000 persons are missing.”
Meanwhile, faced with criticism, the Centre said it was not possible to give an early warning on the tsunami that caused destruction in 2260 km of southern coastline of the country.
“It is not necessary that tsunami will be there in the event of an earthquake. In the history there have been many earthquakes which have not caused any tsunamis,” Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal told newspersons reacting to allegations that government could not warn the coastal areas on time.
Though the authorities knew of the earthquake that hit Sumatra at 6.29 am, they could not assess that it would cause tsunamis which hit the Indian coast after about 2.5 hours, he said.
However, the Minister said the Centre had now decided to install 10-12 “deepocean assessment and reporting systems” and would also coordinate with the Pacific Tsunamic Warning Centre to learn from their experience, he said adding the cost of the system would be about Rs 100 crore to Rs 125 crore.
But, the Minister said the country would not join the 26 Pacific rim countries which are part of an international network as their system is installed only in the Pacific Ocean.
The Minister also informed that the Centre had decided to send the ship “Sagar Kanya” to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to see whether any displacement of land surface had occurred.
“Sagar Kanya, the sea research vessel, is being sent to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to see whether any displacement of land surface has occurred,” Mr Sibal said adding the ship would survey the islands for any physical changes.
The Indian Airlines today operated 11 special flights (seven from Chennai and four from Kolkata) and evacuated 1190 stranded people, which included some foreign tourists, from the tsunami-hit areas.
Since the demand for passenger flights has
receded, the National Career has decided to operate only three special flights tomorrow from Chennai, sources said.
The Indian Airlines has so far operated 26 special flights since the 26th morning, when the killer wave hit the Indian coast.
