Saturday, January 22 2005 20:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Congress leader and Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi kept security personnel on tenterhooks when he mingled with the tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

The Congress leader, accompanied by TNCC (Tamil Nadu Congress Committee) president G K Vasan arrived at Pudupattinam, one of the worst affected villages in Kancheepuram district and started mingling with the fishermen families, oblivious of security apprehensions.

He was invited by some fisher folk to visit their houses, and he readily obliged them.

People complained to him that they were yet to get the full quota of Government's relief materials. Rahul assured them that he would ensure that the materials reached them.

When a 80-year-old woman started narrating her woes, he presented a shawl to her and assured her that her problems would be looked into.

Earlier in the day Rahul visited the tsunami affected Periyakalapet village near Pondicherry. Immediately after alighting from the car he moved towards a group of villagers who were waiting for his arrival.

The Chief Minister N Rangasamy, his Cabinet colleagues, the Pondicherry PCC chief V Narayanasamy and PMK leader M Ramadoss, MP, were among those who accompanied Rahul Gandhi during his visit to the villages.

Some youths from Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu complained that they did not get adequate relief materials. The Congress leader gave them his visiting card and asked them to remind him over telephone about their complaint tonight, so that he could talk to the authorities at New Delhi to do the needful.

Rahul told reporters at Kalpakkam that he had come here only to hear the grievances of the tsunami affected people and that he would take up with the Centre their problems and the need for providing relief to them.

He said he had not come here to distribute any solatium. Gandhi also consoled an injured woman at Pondicherry.

He walked through the debris littered over the shore in the Periyakalapet village.

Rahul had visited the private Arvind eye hospital at Pondicherry on Friday (Jan 21, 2005), according to Dr P Namperumal Samy, director of the hospital.

He told newsmen here today that Rahul had come to know of the special features of the hospital and wanted to have an eye hospital in Amethi and hence he acquainted himself with the various features of the hospital.

Gandhi later left for New Delhi from Chennai by a scheduled flight.