'Kerala tsunami funds diverted to develop tourism'

LONDON: Funds earmarked to help tsunami-affected people in Kerala are being wrongly used to develop tourism in the Southern Indian state, a British charity has claimed.

A report by the London-based Tourism Concern claimed that Kerala government had allocated about Rs 85 crore of Central government's Tsunami Rehabilitation Programme to the state tourism board.

"The relief projects have been re-labelled by Kerala Tourism as 'costal protection' in an attempt to quell local outrage, but consist almost entirely of beach beautification measures to attract tourists," the charity claimed.

According to the report, the fund is being used for setting up of toilet blocks, walkways, kiosks, amphitheater and electrical works on its beaches, a major attraction for domestic and foreign tourists.

The report noted the money was being spent on projects in areas that were not damaged by the 2004 tsunami "in a direct contravention of the Union government guidelines."

Meanwhile, it claimed, other Tsunami-affected areas of the state like the peninsulas of Allapad and Arattupuzha, which bore the brunt of the disaster, remain in urgent need of coastal protection and infrastructural repair.

Thousands of people were killed and lakhs of other rendered homeless when the killer waves hit India's southern states in December 2004.