Sichuan quake leaves 1.4 m people destitute
15 Jul 2008, 1414 Hrs

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New Delhi, July 15 (ANI): The Sichuan earthquake has left 1.4 million farmers in about 4,000 remote villages in absolute poverty, an anti-poverty official said Monday.

Xu Hui, department director of the State Council's Leading Group Office of Poverty-Alleviation and Development said a village needs an average investment of three million Yuan or 438,000 dollars to recover permanent shelter, infrastructure and basic services.

According to Hui, the government would need to "pump in a minimum of 12 billion Yuan" into the poor villages in the coming three years to ensure the villagers' basic necessities in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces are met.

Most of the villagers will not be relocated out of their own villages when deciding the locations of their new homes, The China Daily quoted him, as saying.

The government will help roll out a recovery program for every poor village by the end of next month and local farmers, who earned the lion's share of their income by working as migrants, are encouraged to take part in the recovery efforts, he said.

An official survey has found that nearly all of the migrants in Sichuan province, in which 35 counties have been severely damaged by the quake, have returned home after the quake, which killed at about 70,000 so far. (ANI)