Friday, February 4 2005 18:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The Army refused to retrieve the bodies of those who died in the tsunami tragedy and the State Government had to requisition the services of sanitary workers from many parts of the State, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa told the Assembly today (Feb 4, 2005).

Refuting CPI (Communist Party of India) member G Palanisamy's charge that police had not done anything in tsunami relief works, she said the police did a good job.

"Even the Army personnel refused to retrieve the bodies and we had to requisition the services of sanitary workers for the job and bury the bodies," she said.

Later making a dig at CLP leader S R Balasubramaniam, she said the Opposition was criticising the State Government even for good proposals like construction of protection wall along the 1076 km coastal belt in the State to save the people from tsunami attacks.

The plan was a combination of construction of sea walls and growing of mangrove forests in the coastal belt, but the Opposition had ridiculed her proposal, saying that it was like constructing the Great Wall of China.

She defended the implementation of the New Veeranam extension scheme and said the scheme would not deplete the ground water table in Koolidam river basin. Government would draw only 150 mld of water per day to meet the drinking water needs of Chennai city. As the basin had surplus ground water, farmers' fears about depletion of the water table in the area were 'unfounded.'