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| Friday, 07 January 2005 |
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Politics | |
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| Govt to set up Authority for Rebuilding the Nation by Ranil Wijayapala The Government will present a Bill to set up an Authority for Rebuilding the Nation in Parliament by the end of January to give legal powers for the Task Force to Rebuild the Nation that is already in force to reconstruct the Tsunami hit areas in the country, Presidential Advisor Mano Tittawella told the media yesterday. Tittawella said the Task Force to Rebuild the Nation has been entrusted with the task of drafting this Bill to be presented in Parliament as an emergency Bill after obtaining approval from the high level Political Committee headed by President Kumaratunga. He said according to initial assessments US$ 1.3 billion to US$ 1.4 billion are required for the reconstruction process that will include reconstructing of infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, power, roads and bridges, railway, water supply and drainage, telecom, tourism, housing urban development and environment, insurance and financing services and fisheries. "This figure may change as we are at the initial stage of assessing the damage caused by the tsunami disaster", he added. He said the Government got the assessment on the damages caused to the LTTE controlled areas in the North and East through the Government Agents in the respective areas and through the RRR Ministry and through the Peace Secretariat. "We are in the process of having discussions to have a workable, and durable system to put in place to facilitate the reconstruction process in the LTTE controlled areas," he added. He said the line Ministries are now preparing reconstruction plans to be finalised by the end next week and to commence the reconstruction work by January 15. "The President has given six months period to complete the reconstruction of houses and other infrastructure. However, the projects like the restoration of the Southern Rail Track will take quite long period", Tittawella added. Secretary to the Prime Minister Lalith Weeratunga told the media that the displaced people will be resettled in safer areas away from the coast line. "No new hotels will be allowed to set up in the coast areas other than the existing hotels," Weeratunga added. He said the Urban Development Authority and the Coast Conservation Department has earmarked certain areas as unsafe areas and the UDA law will be strictly followed when resettling the people. The tsunami disaster will not make any significant effect on the Government revenue collection as it has caused only 3 to 3.5 per cent effect of the GDP, Tittawella said. Addressing the media on the Government's reconstruction plan for the tsunami affected areas, Tittawella said since the 2005 budget mainly focused on the improvement of infrastructure facilities, the reconstruction of the tsunami affected areas will help upgrade the existing infrastructure facilities to international standards. He said the existing funding from the donors will be in place and they will not be channelled for the reconstruction of the tsunami affected areas. He said several Governments have made pledges amounting US$ 1 billion and in the form of grants and loans and the major international funding agencies like JBIC, ADB and World Bank are in the process of assessing the damage and are yet to make their pledges for the reconstruction process. "We hope their pledges will be fairly significant," he added. |
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