As part of Confederation of India Industries [CII] and Ford India's Tsunami Rehabilitation Project, the inauguration of the Community Infrastructure Projects at Pannaiyur Periakuppam took place on Friday, 16th March 2007.
The inauguration was held in the presence of Mr. David T Hopper, Consul General of United States of America in South India, Mr. R Santhanam, IAS, Spl. Commissioner & Commissioner of Revenue Administration, Mr. C V Sankar, IAS, Officer on Special Duty (Relief) and Mr. Pradeep Yadav, IAS, the District Collector of Kancheepuram.
Mr Arvind Mathew, Managing Director and President, Ford India; Mr. N Kumar, Vice Chairman, The Sanmar Group and Chairman, CII Tsunami Task Force; Mr. Lakshminarayan, Chairman, CII Southern Region & Joint Managing Director, Motor Industries Company Limited and Mr. K N Krishnamurthy, Project Head–CII Tsunami Project & Technical Advisor to MD, Ashok Leyland Limited also graced the occasion.
Soon after the disastrous Tsunami of December 2004, CII with the support of Ford India planned a beneficial long-term Rehabilitation Project to support Pannaiyur Periakuppam, a coastal village in Kancheepuram District.
A three-pronged approach was designed to cater to the needs of the 255 families residing at Pannaiyur Periakuppam with Immediate Livelihood, Community Infrastructure and Capacity Building.
Mr. Arvind Mathew, president and managing director, Ford India said, ''Ford India is committed to contribute to the social and economic well being of the people of Tsunami affected Pannaiyur Periakuppam. We have been proactively working along with CII to rebuild the life of the people in this area. We hope that the people of Pannaiyur Periakuppam will benefit from the new community hall, the fish auction centre and public amenities. We will continue to extend our support through CII to the residents of Pannaiyur Periakuppam in the future as well.''
Mr. N Kumar, Past President, CII & Vice Chairman, The Sanmar Group said, “the objective of CII – Ford India partnership at Pannaiyur Periakuppam was to restore the confidence of the tsunami victims by providing capacity building measures that would enable them to break free from traditional practices and help in sustaining the community in newer ways”.
Since the inception of the project during May 2005, active support has been provided to the community by way of donating new boats, engines, conducting health camps, children’s summer camps, tree plantation programs, leadership training programs and skill training for youth. Insurance for boats, engines and fishermen has also been undertaken.
Auto-Rickshaws were provided to SHG Women to scale up their fish vending business. As part of the Community Infrastructure project, roads were laid for a stretch of 2.5 kilometers to connect Pannaiyur Periakuppam to ECR with street lights fixed. The existing Government Primary School Building has been renovated as it was in a depleted condition.
A fish auction centre, community hall and community toilets have been constructed which were formally handed over today to the Panchayat today.
The Community Hall will cater to the needs of the community to have social gatherings and Panchayat, SHG’s and youth meetings. It would also work as a center to provide knowledge, skill sets to the youth, children and women. It could also be used as a Rescue Center during natural disasters. The vessels and catering material that has been provided to the SHG Women will be used by the SHGs to render catering services for all functions.
The Fish Auction Center would serve the purpose for Post Harvest Activity to improve the product cost. The centre has been furnished with ice boxes.
To sustain their existence in the community, we propose to provide health care services and award educational scholarship to best students.
For more information, visit www.india.ford.com For further information, please contact: CII : R Sivakumar – 98409 04753 CMCG India Pvt Ltd.: Abhishek Shrivastav – 9350838866
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