By IANS,
New Delhi: Almost five years since the tsunami wrecked havoc in the coastal regions of India, a parliamentary committee Thursday asked for greater transparency and accountability in relief work undertaken after the calamity.
In the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report tabled in parliament Thursday, the panel has taken note of the mismatch in the estimated budget for the relief work and the final cost.
“Observing a continuous trend of wide disparities in the estimation of final assistance in almost every major natural calamity that had struck the country, the committee has called for a rational and transparent system of the assessment of the damage done so that the affected state or union territory governments does not overshoot their projections,” the report said.
The committee recommended that the home ministry should “conduct a detailed review of all the relief programmes post-tsunami in order to ensure that the rehabilitation funds sanctioned to the affected states or union territories actually reaches the targeted beneficiaries”.
The committee also called for ensuring a “foolproof” identification of the beneficiaries for the relief and rehabilitation measures or schemes in the aftermath of natural calamities.
“The district-wise list of the names and addresses of the beneficiaries along with the quantity of relief and distributed ward-wise in both rural and urban areas should be compiled and made available to the local representatives,” the report added.
The tsunami struck the east coast of India in December 2004 and left nearly 10,000 people dead and a million others homeless.