Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced the “no-entry” policy will be effective from midnight Thursday while visiting the Fukushima Prefecture in the morning.

The restricted zone is already covered by an evacuation directive from the central government, but local residents have become concerned about their homes being burgled and the area has seen increasing numbers of residents going back to their homes to collect items of financial and sentimental value, as the previous directive was on a voluntary basis.

Under the government’s new mandate, residents will be allowed a supervised visit to collect items of value and other necessities and following this will have access to their homes cut off.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a televised press conference that only one person per family will be allowed to return for up to around two hours. They will be made to wear protective clothing and carry dosimeters.

The government plans to start the brief return “in a few days” to complete the first stage in one to two months, Edano added.

But the government has decided not to allow residents living within a 3-km radius of the plant to do so, and will likely exclude also areas outside the 3km radius that have registered high levels of radiation exposure.

All roads and access routes into the area will be sealed off. Persons violating the new governmental directive, including evacuated residents who live within the no-go zone, could face legal repercussions and will be forcibly removed.

Between 70,000 and 80,000 local residents in 10 districts in Fukushima Prefecture within the 20-kilometer radius evacuation zone have already relocated to other places, with some opting to move out of the prefecture.

Of the 3,378 households in the 20-km radius visited by police from March 29 through April 18, 63 households remained despite government’s persuasion.

Edano also said that the evacuation zone around Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant will be cut to 8 km from the current 10 km, as the possibility of serious accident at Fukushima No. 2 plant is low.

Kolkata: An estimated 15 perecnt turnout have been recorded in the first two hours of the ongoing polls in West Bengal. Long ques are being seen at almost all polling stations in the 54 constituencies in six northern districts. Polling began at 7 am. In some places, people cast their vote in candlelight due to power cuts and, in a few polling booths, electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioned only to be set right soon. But polling proceeded smoothly.

From the hill station of Darjeeling to Malda, famed for its mouthwatering mangoes, there was great enthusiasm among people who lined up attired in their best to choose their representatives from among 364 candidates.

People stand in queue to cast their vote as a polling agent checking ID card of a voter in Kolkata. (Photo: The Hindu)

According to sources in state Chief Electoral Officer’s office, around 15 percent polling was recorded in Malda and North Dinajpur Districts, while about 10 percent voters exercised their franchise in Jalpaiguri, South Dinajpur and Darjeeling Districts till 9 a.m. Twenty percent polling was reported from Cooch Behar District.

The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front faces its biggest ever challenge in its 34 years of rule from the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine.

The fate of 11 ministers of the Left Front will be decided during the day by over 97 lakh voters in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda districts.

Security has been beefed up in all the six districts.

The CPI-M is contesting 32 seats, the Communist Party of India (CPI) two, Forward Bloc 10, Revolutionary Communist Party (RSP) nine, Socialist Party one, Trinamool Congress 26, Congress 27, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) one, and Bharatiya Janata Party 49.

Also in the fray are the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in three constituencies, Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) three, Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League three.

Of the 54 constituencies, 16 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and eight for Scheduled Tribes.

Polling for the crucial assembly polls for 294 seats in the eastern state will be held in six phases. The next phases will be held April 23 (for 50 constituencies), April 27 (75), May 3 (63), May 7 (38) and May 10 (14). The votes will be counted May 13.

TEPCO plans to pay 1 million yen (11,949 U.S. dollars) per household in its provisional damages, according to Kyodo News. The amount of TEPCO’s provisional damages payment will hit 50 billion yen.

The facility owner has been battling to keep the reactors under control at the plant which is still leaking radioactive substance into environment.

New Delhi: Delhi-based NGO Programs Leading to Empowerment and Advocacy (PLEA) stood in solidarity with the victims of Japan quake and consequent tsunami that resulted in deaths of thousands.

On April 11, PLEA marked the one month of the disaster at its centre in South Delhi where it runs a coaching centre for “underprivileged children at nominal fees.”

PLEA office bearers and its students paid tribute to the lives lost and the people affected by the disasters in Japan by lighting candles.

The candles kept burning throughout the day as about 15 children came and lit candles.

“The idea was to make people aware about the magnitude of the disaster. Therefore, PLEA had put up banners and charts,” said NGO’s Programme Officer Rabab Imam.

About 151,000 survivors are staying in 2,300 shelters across the country as one month has passed since the quake and tsunami.

Police officers in protective suits observe a moment of silence for those who were killed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, as they search for bodies at a destroyed area in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture, about 18km from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, April 11, 2011. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific coastal areas of northeastern and eastern Japan on March 11, triggering enormous tsunami.

Heavy casualties and extensive damage have been caused by the twin disasters.

A preliminary estimate put the quake’s magnitude at 7.1, which was later lowered to 6.6, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Residents in Tokyo also felt the jolts.

A man walks his dog in Ibaraki prefecture, south of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on April 6. (CNN photo)

A tsunami warning issued by Japan’s Meteorological Agency was canceled.

The quake was centered about 164 kilometers (101 miles) northeast of Tokyo, or about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to the USGS.

Workers at the plant were asked to evacuate.

The Tohoku Electric Power Company said 220,000 households and businesses in Fukushima where without power after Monday’s quake.

One such method floated by the central government is for TEPCO to entirely wrap four damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant with a massive sheeting.

The damaged 45-meter high containment buildings will be framed with skeletal structures to hold the sheeting, in a bid to limit the amount of radiation leaking from the faulty reactors into the atmosphere and the ground, government sources said.

However, nuclear experts questioned the method, saying the move would have only limited effects on preventing radiation from leaking into the air and the earth.

Experts have suggested that the level of radiation inside the sheeting would subsequently increase making it even more difficult for workers to effectively conduct restoration activities at the crippled six-reactor plant.

On Saturday, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was found to have been discharging highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

Later in the day, TEPCO said it had found a crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor, which they believed was the source of the contaminated water.

Director General of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano told journalists in Nairobi late Friday that the crisis will take a while to be resolved. “I don’t know how long it will take to contain the situation but preliminary results indicate that it will not be resolved tomorrow or the day after.”

Amano, who was attending the Chief Executives Board (CEB) meeting in Kenya’s capital for all UN Agencies heads, said his organization is the reference point for validated information regarding the incident in Japan.

The nuclear watch dog agency is however optimistic that the international community will come to the aid of the Asia country.

A partial meltdown of one of the nuclear reactors has released radioactive material that has contaminated a 20 mile radius of the Daiichi plant.

The UN agency said it will send two experts to Japan to get first-hand information about the status of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Amano said the two experts will hold meetings with Japanese nuclear officials from April 4 onwards, adding that the IAEA plans conference in June to deal with Japan Nuclear disaster.

He said a conference planning to be held in Austrian capital Vienna from June 20 to 24 will discuss the nuclear crisis in Japan that was caused by massive earthquake and the resulting tsunami three weeks ago.

Amano said the conference will take stock of the accident and review safety procedures followed by Japanese authorities. “The conference will bring together experts who will assess the unfolding situation in Japan and will look at the safety standards for other nuclear plants in the country as well as the response by the international community,”Amano observed.

The conference will also be part of the commemoration of the 25 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.

Lack of electricity in the area surrounding the plant has hampered the Japanese efforts to read instruments that could give accurate assessment on the level of damage to the nuclear reactors.

Amano expressed confidence that the Japanese nuclear accident will not affect the world community’s reliance on the use of nuclear technology.

He said the disaster in Japan was caused by an earthquake and tsunami and therefore will not discourage the use of the technology. “The nuclear plant was not destroyed by human error and therefore IAEA will not influence member states to avoid the use of nuclear technology so long as they are in position to do it safely,” the UN atomic agency chief told journalists.

The nuclear watchdog said since most nuclear plants have excellent safety record only energy security and price of fossils will be the key determinant on the use of nuclear.

Speaking at a nationally televised news conference, Kan said that the fight to bring the nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture under control would be a long one but he remained convinced that Japan would pull through.

“I am prepared for a long-term battle over the Fukushima nuclear plant and to win this battle,” the prime minister said.

“We cannot say that the plant has been sufficiently stabilized, but we are preparing for all kinds of situations and I am convinced that the plant can be stabilized,” he added.

Kan played down potential health risks caused by the radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, whose critical cooling systems failed after being pounded by a massive tsunami.

Japanese Pm Naoto Kan During the Press Conference (Courtesy: Xinhua)

“As long as government advisories were adhered to, people’s health wouldn’t be compromised,” he said. “In Japan, we ask people to follow the rules because if they do, there will be no damage to their health.”

The prime minister also said that the government would decide whether to expand the evacuation zone from 20-km around the volatile facility based on advise from nuclear experts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had urged Japan to widen the evacuation zone around the stricken plant and evacuate people out of the village of Iitate, 40 km northwest of the facility, on concerns of elevated levels of radiation found in air, soil and sea samples in the area.

But Kan said that evacuation advice from its own nuclear safety agency as well as global watchdogs was being heeded.

“Japan decides on the area of evacuation around the plant based on experts’ advice and proposals,” the prime minister said.

Kan’s comments came despite the government’s Nuclear and Industry safety Agency saying that radioactive water may be freely flowing into the Pacific Ocean through drainage systems and supply trenches.

On the future of the beleaguered utility firm, and amid rumors of nationalization, Kan said that he wanted Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to redouble its efforts as a private entity, but added that ultimately the government would take responsibility for the massive compensation claims.

“If it exceeds TEPCO’s capabilities, the government must deal with the issue responsibly,” he said.

But while Kan said that an extra budget would be compiled to deal with the monumental affects of the disaster and some state-projects for this fiscal year have already been suspended. He failed to explain exactly where the cash-strapped government would get the emergency allocation.

According to Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano, the total cost of the disaster would range between 191 to 298 billion U.S. dollars.

As the government struggles with a budget deficit equal to nearly 50 percent of the government’s pre-quake budget, economists fear the government may struggle to issue further debt to effectively deal with the crisis.

Meanwhile, thousands of Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) personnel and U.S. military troops on Friday launched a massive mission to find and retrieve bodies that had not yet been recovered.

The search came as the government revealed that radiation from a nuclear power plant crippled by the twin disaster had been found in groundwater, with contamination already reported in the air, ocean and food.

Some 8,000 SDF personnel and about 7,000 U.S. military troops will take part in the intensive search and recovery operation, the defense ministry said.

Japanese and U.S. troops deployed 120 aircraft and 65 vessels to be used in the three-day mission to search coastal areas where homes, businesses, schools, ships and cars were swept away by massive torrents of water following the earthquake.

The National Police Agency said on Friday that the catastrophic earthquake and ensuing tsunami have so far left 11,620 people dead and 16,464 others missing.

Many victims of the quake and ensuing tsunami are believed to have been swept out to sea by the surging tsunami and the huge recovery operation has been launched to coincide with favorable tidal patterns that will make it easier to detect bodies, the ministry said.

Local police in Fukushima Prefecture believed that more than 1, 000 bodies still remain uncollected within the evacuation zone around the volatile nuclear plant and are being exposed to increasing levels of radiation day-by-day as they decompose.