Gonu-newsfeeds-June 12, 2007

We have two reports here. A man was wrongly put on the list of dead Indians, but the anomaly was swiftly corrected. The other is a report by Oman Tribune.

I
MUSCAT – A man on the Gonu dead list has come back from the ‘grave’. A Punjabi (Indian), Prempal Singh, who was declared dead, suddenly came back to ‘life’. Singh, hearing that his name was on the list of the unfortunate victims of the cyclone Gonu, which devastated several parts of Oman, last week, quickly corrected the anomaly.He called up the Indian Embassy and declared that he was very much alive, Indian Embassy sources, said yesterday.A total of six Indians are confirmed dead.An equal number are missing, Indian Embassy officials said.“So far six Indians are confirmed dead. We have found six bodies so far,” J. Tripathi, the charge d’ affairs, Indian Embassy said. Out of the six, one is a female. Tripathi said that body of Shobana Sharma a nurse from Pune, was found on Monday in the Rusail area. The others are Prithvi Pal Singh from Punjab, Anil Kumar of Ottapalam at Palakkad in Kerala and Sarawana Kumar Bilai (Rajasthan), Prakash from Mysore in Karnataka and Pokkan Sreenu, (from East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh).The bodies of Prithvi Pal Singh of Punjab and Anil Kumar of Ottapalam at Palakkad in Kerala were found on Sunday.Anil Kumar's body was found in a highly decomposed state and therefore his remanins were cremated in Oman. Earlier, reports quoted Indian Minister of State for External Affairs minister, E. Ahamed, as of saying that he and the Indian Embassy officials have spoken to the father of Anil Kumar and conveyed this sad message.Reports noted that the families of both the Punjabis are settled in Muscat. The Indian government also decided to waive for a month the charge of RO30 for duplicate passports. "Many people have lost their passports and so we have decided to waive of the charges for a month," Ahamed had said in India. Those who are missing include Sajit Kumar (Calicut, Kerala), Udayan (Guruvayur, Kerala), Sami (Andhra Pradesh), Mohammed Ali and Binu (both from Ernakulam, Kerala). The name of another missing person from Punjab is not yet known. Two other Indians -- Dharmarajan and Mohammed Abdul Rahim - both from Andhra Pradesh, were injured in the storm, reports said.


II

MUSCAT – Oil installations and fields in the Sultanate were not affected by Cyclone Gonu, according to Dr Mohammed bin Hammad Al Romhi, oil and gas minister.“They have been functioning normally,” the minister said.Even the oil exports were stopped only on Wednesday and Thursday, as a result of the cyclone, and they were resumed on Friday. “The situation is back to normal.”The minister told Oman Tribune that the pipelines were not affected by the cyclone. Only Al Ansab gas pipeline was affected, which again was repaired in 68 hours, he said.Neither was the operations of Oman Oil Refinery affected, nor was there any damage to its facilities. The fuel production is back in full swing. Sohar Refinery was also supplying gas to electricity stations.To a query on the short supply of fuel, as was reported in some sections of the market, the minister said: Fuel was available, but there were some cases where the fuel marketing companies were not able to supply fuel because the roads to some areas were damaged.