By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, MARCH 8. Two visiting Indian officials today shared with their Sri Lankan counterparts their experiences of post-tsunami relief and rehabilitation work.

The two officials — Shantha Sheela Nair and J. Radhakrishnan — made a detailed presentation on the efforts taken in Tamil Nadu in the wake of the December 26 tsunami and the policy issues involved in disaster management. Emphasising the importance of empowering district administrations, Ms. Nair, Tamil Nadu's Secretary for Rural Development, who was in-charge of the overall supervision of relief operations in Nagapattinam, said that "enhanced powers and responsibility" to the district administrator was a crucial element in speedy redress.

Nagapattinam model

An instance of administrative devolution was apparent in the Nagapattinam model, where co-ordination work was devolved to 11 sub-districts, with an IAS official heading a team comprising a political representative and government officials.

"We all joined together in a moment of sadness," Mr. Radhakrishnan, the Collector of Nagapattinam, said.

Outlining the similarities of experiences in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka's southern and eastern coast, he said that focusing the efforts on creating a "spirit of growth," would be the "best tribute to those who lost their lives."

Ms. Nair said the intensity of the disaster was "100 thousand times more than anything we would have ever imagined. Compared to the 3,000 lives lost in natural disasters in Tamil Nadu since 1952, in 20 minutes, 8,000 lives were lost." In Nagapattinam, about 4,000 to 5,000 deaths occurred within a 5-10 km range and the intensity was about 425 deaths/sq.km.

Accompanied by the Indian High Commissioner, Nirupama Rao, and Sunjay Sudhir, First Secretary, Indian High Commission, the two officials visited Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka and Matara in southern Sri Lanka on Monday.

Referring to the Sri Lankan experience, the Secretary to the Prime Minister, Lalith Weeratunga, said that an "important lesson is that district collectors should be totally empowered."

In Sri Lanka, he said, government agents were empowered to carry out the relief work and were officially notified as `competent authorities' immediately after the tsunami, "but you have done much more." The "entire effort centred on the district collector," for which empowerment was crucial, he added.

The Hindu