A report from Rtn. Mohan Roy
The members of the Rotary Club visited the Pudukuppam vilage on the 24th of April to unedrstand the progress of the rehab package offered by us to the village.
Here is a report from Rtn. Moha Roy
27th April,05 This is a ..belated.. report on our visit to PUDUKUPPAM on Sunday the 24th April. Vidya , Latha, Siva, Kalpana and I drove in Siva's car and reached the village by 9.40 am . Devaraj was already waiting for us though he had ,at the same time, to interact with Revenue dept officials who were taking lists of house owners whose dwellings are within 200 anf 500 metres frm the sea coast respectively .
We could see a good number of logs (comes from Kerala and is the same wood that is used for match sticks) lying around in the sun on the seashore .Two CATAMARANS (takes four and upto six logs) floating in the waters while one more was ready to be put to water .
The team of two special carpenters have been poached from another assignment and they have promised to make ready between 10 anf 15 Catamarans by the 10th of May and then they have to go back to take up an assignment which they have left pending.
They say that they have tried and failed in using electically operated tools to speed up the work.That is because the logs have to be matched and shaped almost like components of a piece of clothing . So . indeed it is Vidya's persistence andTim's forthcoming visit that has made progress at least to this extent .
Devaraj and the others confirmed that all the nets hve ben received and they have got them ready for going to sea. There is a ban on fishing because the villagers want to put pressure on the Govt to give them lenient terms for the purchase of boats and the slanging match between the central and state government is only becoming more strident ... they do not know when these grants will come.
Meantime, the Frenchman who owns a neighbourhood property has given them funds for six fibreglass boats..these are now waiting for motors to be fixed. All in all, Pudukuppam seems to be recouping and handling their afffairs better than many others .
The gentleman who supplied the nets was also supposed to meet us there as he has not done his paperwork to our satisfaction .We wanted for him for over one hour and then left after telling Devraj that the balance due to this person will be released only when he has the papers right .The man phones Vidya and Mathew four to five times a day !!!..but goes missing when a meeting is asked for.
Several photos of the logs, boats, work in progress were taken on Vidya's mobil phone and I wonder if she has been able to transfer them to her computer . Even as we were there two fishermen from the village went to sea in a catamaran (old reconditioned) .They were back within half an hour ( we could see them ) with a catch substantial enough for the village to share !!! The fishermen say there are so many fish in the waters that it is going to be very fruitful time for them when the start work.
No comments:
Post a Comment