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Almost a year after the tsunami swept away homes of about 40,000 people in the worst-hit Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the waves of indecision have made it sure that the roofs don't return over their heads for a long time to come.
A row between the government and Non Government Organisations has stalled the project for construction of about 8,500 houses in the Islands.
While the NGOs working in the reconstruction blame the government for not invloving them in the housing project, government says the construction work could not begin because the voluntary bodies wanted the design and technology of their own liking, claiming to understand the life style of the islanders better.
These bodies want the houses to be built, should be in tune with the original habitat of the people living in the Islands while the CPWD maintains that the tribal people too have a right to benefit from new technology and get stronger and more comfortable houses.
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Armed with a Rs 500-crore budget, Caritas India wanted to build 18,000 homes in the tsunami-hit states, but it now says except in Kerala these homes may not be ready even in the second anniversary.
''We have not been invloved in the planning for building houses in Andaman and Nicobar, though we have sufficient funds,'' said a senior functionary of the NGO.
According to sources in the CPWD, which has been assigned the work of giving technical support to the construction work, the project could have been finalised much earlier but for the resistance shown by some voluntary