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Tsunami toll reaches 1,75,000

     Galle (Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka's tsunami death toll shot up on Monday as officials said the more they cleared up, the more bodies they found. The island added another 7,275 victims to its list of the dead, taking the national toll over 38,000 and the overall toll around Indian Ocean nations to 175,458. "We are coming across dead bodies on a daily basis as we clear the rubble," The News quoted, a senior public security ministry official as saying. Hardest-hit Indonesia has steadily raised its total, but Sri Lanka's body count had stabilized around 30,000 until on Monday.

Rumours hold up fish sale

     Kolachal (Tamil Nadu): Impoverished fishermen in Tamil Nadu state who survived the tsunamis have been hit by a rumour that proves to be equally disastrous. The rumour mill went on an overdrive spreading tales that the fish caught after the tsunami was unfit for consumption as they could have fed on corpses. Those who gathered courage to venture into the seas again were perplexed when they found that their catch was as good as useless, fetching just a fraction of the normal prices. Fish sales fell sharply in India and fish consumption came down from 50 tonnes to just 2 tonnes in Chennai. "Nobody buys the fish. What can we do? This is the only source of our livelihood. There are several rumours spreading here what can we do?" asked Mascreen, a fisherwoman. The United Nations food agency, worried about a drop in fish consumption in poor Asian countries, has said fish from the Indian Ocean were safe and had not been made poisonous by the effects of the tsunami. The Food and Agriculture Organisation has said, that it was concerned that if people already weakened by the tsunami stopped eating fish due to unfounded health scares there could be a grave impact on nutrition, especially where fish is part of a staple diet. Elsewhere in Kerala, film stars, top bureaucrats and even writers have organised food festivals with fish preparations in order to bring fish back on the menu.

     Meanwhile, aid workers said that relief should be given as a package and should not get bogged down by bureaucratic hassles. "We are trying to create a pressure group to implement all kind of schemes, the rules and regulations which are applicable in this kind of situation, so that the fishermen who have got affected by the tsunami can get the relief at their best," said Kiran Shaheen, communications head of Action Aid India.

TN petition on seer bail adjourned for two weeks (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the Madras High Court order granting bail to the Kanchi Sankracharya in the Radhakrishna assault case was adjourned today by the Supreme Court for two weeks. The adjournment was sought by the state on the ground that it would file additional documents in the ongoing probe against the seer in the 2002-assault case. The state has also been asked by the court to file the injury report of the concerned case. The seer was earlier granted bail in the Sankararaman murder case by the apex court.