CHINA:CHINA HAS begun sending payments and support messages to the parents of thousands of children who died in the Sichuan earthquake, in an effort to show support and to reduce political fallout over shabby building standards and poor supervision of school construction.
The Chengdu City population family planning commission has set up a special programme to support those parents whose only child was killed or badly injured in the quake.
The parents will receive 100 yuan each (€9.10) per month in supplementary benefits, local media reported.
Meanwhile, parents of children killed in the most notorious example of a school collapse, at the Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan, have been sent messages of condolence and offers of financial support.
Hundreds of children died in the school when a classroom building collapsed in the May 12th quake, even as nearby apartments and offices remained standing.
The disaster's confirmed death toll stands at nearly 70,000, including thousands of schoolchildren, although the exact number of young victims has not been revealed.
Reuters reported how grieving parents also began receiving 35,000 yuan (€3,200) in promised "condolence money" and payments from government departments. Parents are also receiving money to pay for children's funerals, as well as unemployment benefits.
Last week, fearful of the political fallout, authorities stepped in to remove scores of grieving parents from the town hall in Dujiangyan where they were protesting about shoddy building standards for the school.
Another badly-damaged school, the Xuankou Middle School in devastated Wenchuan county, will form the centrepiece of a memorial park to the earthquake, Xinhua news agency reported.
Elsewhere in the quake zone, the Tangjiashan quake lake is rising because a channel dug by the People's Liberation Army isn't draining water as quickly as hoped, Xinhua reported.
Authorities were getting ready to evacuate people living downstream.
Water is flowing into Tangjiashan lake more than two times faster than the 475-metre channel is allowing it to escape, relief officials said.
Water started flowing through the channel on June 7th, the government said.
Authorities are worried about aftershocks which continue to rock the area, including a 5-magnitude tremor on Sunday.
They are worried that aftershocks or rain will trigger landslides and raise the level of the lake, which holds about 246 million cubic metres of water.
Military engineers have been firing hand-held rockets and using dynamite to shift boulders in the channel, Xinhua said.