The Hindu Business Line : PM to convene all-party meet to mobilise help for tsunami victims

TERMING the devastation caused by tsunami last week as national calamity, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has decided to convene an all-party meeting in two days to mobilise help for the victims.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Friday, Dr Singh said the meeting would show collective will of the nation in helping the victims.

He announced Rs 100 crore each for Andhra Pradesh and Kerala to take up rescue and relief operations. In the case of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, the Government would discuss with the respective Chief Ministers to announce financial assistance.

A senior Central Government official, however, said that Tamil Nadu might get Rs 250 crore and Pondicherry Rs 50 crore.

The Prime Minister rounded off his three-State tour at Vijayawada where he discussed the situation with the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, and several Union and State Ministers.

Describing the situation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as grim, he said the Centre would establish an integrated relief command at Port Blair with the Lieutenant Governor as Chairman. The Government would depute two senior Union Ministers to Port Blair to oversee the relief operations.

Andaman being a Union Territory, the Centre would bear the total costs of relief.

The Prime Minister said the Reserve Bank of India would be asked to be liberal in providing loans to people in the affected areas. Hudco's loans too would be utilised for housing for the victims.

The Prime Minister, accompanied by his Cabinet colleagues, Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr Prithviraj Chauhan, arrived at the Gannavaram Airport on Friday evening after making an aerial survey of some affected areas in the State.

However, unlike in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he did not go to any coastal village.

Assuring Andhra Pradesh that resources would not come in the way of extending relief work, the Prime Minister said that the Centre would work "shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand'' with the State Government in bailing out the victims.

The priority should be providing temporary shelters, drinking water and offering fishing equipment to the fishermen, he said.

Referring to the anxiety of thousands of families in the North Coastal Andhra Pradesh on the fate of their kin in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dr Singh said all possible help would be extended.

Earlier, the Prime Minister met the kin of the people devoured by tsunami and those who lost their fishing equipment. He distributed Rs 5 lakh to four people who lost their kin and nets to 70 fishermen.

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