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Cabinet in national appeal for reconstructing flood affected areas

by Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting yesterday made a national appeal to all citizens to assist in the reconstruction work consequent upon the recent floods, political sources told the Daily News last night.

The Cabinet has also appealed to all social service organisations to come forward to assist the authorities in resettling the thousands of people who have been rendered homeless.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has told Cabinet that the Committee of Ministers under the Chairmanship of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will be placed in charge of coordinating the work in the affected districts. The other members of the Committee are Premier Wickremesinghe and Ministers Karu Jayasuriya, Alick Aluwihare, John Amaratunga, P. Dayaratne, Bandula Gunawardena, Tilak Marapana, Rauf Hakeem and Arumugam Thondaman.

The Cabinet has decided that the affected districts will be divided into zones and the Chief Minister of the Province together with the local authorities will supervise the rehabilitation work under the direction of the Cabinet Committee, according to these sources.

The Cabinet Committee will first assess the financial requirement of each affected district so that funds could be contributed by the Government and the public and a further announcement will be made in the next few days, the sources said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, in a note to the Cabinet in response to the Premier's Cabinet note proposing that the President chair the Disaster Management Committee, had mentioned that it would be sufficient if one committee to be chaired by the President is established as an interim measure. And sub committees of this main committee could be set up under the chairmanship of a senior Minister to deal with the situation.

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