by S Venkat Narayan Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, April 24: India has so far disbursed SLR 2.28 billion among 15,586 internally displaced beneficiaries in Sri Lanka's civil war-ravaged Northern Province, according to latest information available.

India has undertaken to help build 50,000 homes for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the island-nation's Northern, Eastern, Central, Uva provinces by providing financial assistance. The housing project in the Eastern province will be launched next month.

The Project Steering Committee (PSC) for the Indian Housing Project, co-chaired by Sri Lankan Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa, and Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K Kantha met in Colombo early this month and reviewed the progress of implementation of the Indian Housing Project.

The meeting was attended by the officials of the Ministry of Economic Development, Presidential Task Force (PTF) and the High Commission of India.

The PSC placed on record its appreciation for the progress made in terms of selection of beneficiaries and release of funds during Year-I of Phase 2 of the Housing Project. The Co-Chairs noted that, as on 31 March 2013, the first installment payments had been transferred to 11,379 beneficiaries, second installment payments to 3,448 beneficiaries, third installment to 741 beneficiaries and fourth installment to 18 beneficiaries.

These work out to a total of 15,586 transactions, involving transfer of SLR2.28 billion, since the launch of the Project on 2 October 2012, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a press release from the Indian mission in Colombo says.

The Co-Chairs noted with satisfaction that the target fixed for 31 March 2013, namely the release of first installment payments to 10,000 beneficiaries, had been exceeded. All efforts would be made to encourage at least 10,000 beneficiaries to complete their houses in Year-I.

Based on the momentum achieved in moving forward the process, the two sides agreed to fix a target of selection and release of funds to 15,000 new beneficiaries during Year II of the Project.

It was agreed that Implementing Agencies (IAs) will work with the concerned Government functionaries of all the five districts of the Northern Province to address the issue of any scarcity of material or labour, which could affect the implementation of the Project, as it gathers greater pace.

The PSC decided to launch the Project in the Eastern Province in May 2013. It was agreed that priority will be accorded to the highly-affected areas in the Province, on the basis of a needs assessment indicating the number of resettled families.

The PSC noted that WAPCOS Ltd., a Public Sector Undertaking of Government of India, has been selected as the Project Management Consultant (PMC) for Phase-3 of the Indian Housing Project, involving construction of 4,000 houses in the Central/Uva Provinces, under the agency-driven model.

The PSC commended the officials of the Government of Sri Lanka, the High Commission and the Implementing Agencies, for their commitment and efforts in showing significant progress and achieving the targets set for the implementation of the Project since its launch on 2 October 2012.

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