New Delhi, Dec. 27: The Union cabinet has decided to provide the tsunami-hit states Rs 500 crore from the National Calamity Contingency Fund for immediate relief and appealed to people to donate for the disaster-hit.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked his council of ministers to donate a month?s salary to the fund and government servants to give a day?s pay.

Singh, who was slated to visit affected states tomorrow, has postponed his trip. Instead, he will be in the capital to take stock of the situation in Car Nicobar island, which has been the worst-hit in the country.

Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, who visiting the Andaman and Nicolar islands, will return tomorrow and give the Prime Minister first-hand information about the devastation there, PMO spokesperson Sanjaya Baru said.

Finance minister P. Chidambaram has urged India Inc to donate generously to the Prime Minister?s Relief Fund. Members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) have already responded by committing Rs 2.5 crore.

The cabinet has decided to constitute a committee which will monitor relief and rehabilitation measures on a daily basis. The committee will be chaired by the Prime Minister and in his absence the seniormost cabinet minister, Chidambaram said after the cabinet meeting.

The official death toll in the states hit by the tsunami waves hovers around 3,400, but there is a feeling that the final body count could be twice to thrice this figure, or even more if the government?s worst fears come true in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Reports from the Andamans have tentatively put the toll across the islands to around 3,000 but home ministry officials feel it is bound to increase.

The islands will be considered separately for financial assistance through the home ministry in view of its Union territory status and its special needs.

Minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal spoke of another danger bothering the ministry ? that India might lose some islands to the sea permanently. Some 25 low-lying islands in the Car Nicobar region have been submerged, Jaiswal said, giving rise to speculation that they might be lost permanently.

Aerial surveys and satellite images in the last 24 hours have not been able to give the complete picture of the disaster, officials said. So, the damage assessment in the islands could be a long-drawn affair, they added.

?We have been able to establish contact with the Nicobar collector over satellite phone and have started air dropping food, blankets and tentage,? a home ministry official said.

The Crisis Management Group that met this afternoon to make a fresh assessment and review the relief work has decided to concentrate efforts on those islands administered directly by the lieutenant-governor and a team of bureaucrats.

Although the devastation is widespread, home ministry officials said there was no need to declare the calamity a ?national disaster? as the states were managing the situation ?very well?.