Govt ropes in UN bodies for Lanka rehab

Middlemen were ruled out following corruption charges

The cabinet, in its meeting last week, decided to exclude agencies virtually acting as middlemen following a controversy which included allegations of corruption. A senior official of the external affairs ministry was transferred as the controversy broke out.

Informed sources told Deccan Herald here on Tuesday that the cabinet, in its meeting on December 8, allowed reconstruction and repair of a total of 49,000 houses for internally displaced persons [IDPs] in northern and eastern provinces and for Indian Origin Tamils in the island nation under grant assistance from the Indian government.

The assistance will include : construction of 38,000 houses and repair of 5000 houses under the owner-driven model for IDPs [where owners have to build/repair their own houses], and construction of 6000 houses under the agency-driven model for vulnerable sections of IDPs.

In a significant deviation from the past, the cabinet is said to have given green signal to the proposal moved by external affairs minister S M Krishna that UN agencies such as UN Habitat and UN Ops would undertake implementation of the housing project. The ministry selected these agencies mainly with an objective to maintain transparency in the programme. These agencies of repute already have presence in the country and are aware of the situation there. They are also experienced in identification of the beneficiaries.

The cabinet has also made it mandatory for the beneficiaries of the 38,000 houses to open accounts in Indian banks such as State Bank of India and money would be released to these accounts. The  payment would be made in four instalments.

“The significant feature of this programme is that there will be no middleman involved in this. The Lankan government is fine with this decision. There will be transparency in the appointment of implementing agencies,” informed sources said.

In case of agency-driven model, the project monitoring company will be a reputed Indian agency with a proven track record in construction, the cabinet has decided. the list of all the beneficiaries would be given by the Lankan government.

The project is part of the over all commitment of 50,000 houses announced by prime minister Manmohan Singh during the visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India in June 2010. A total of 1000 houses is already under implementation. The issue had figured in Lok Sabha on November 23, 2011.

The programme would be undertaken in what was once a war zone - during the LTTE days. The three-decades long armed conflict in the island has led to displacement of thousands of people. Most of the displaced are still living in the make-shift camps.

Perhaps for the first time in recent years, the MEA was target of allegations of corruption relating to award of contracts for projects and the line of credit. The controversy was said to have led to the transfer of T S Tirumurti,  then joint secretary in charge of the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka-Myanmar-Maldives division (commonly known as BSM).