Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called to imbibe the spirit of Onam, a symbol of unity, to fuel the State’s rebuilding efforts.
Having risen above the floods, the people of the State must join hands to work for a better tomorrow, he said.
He was speaking while inaugurating the State-level Onam Week celebrations at the Nishagandhi auditorium on Tuesday.
Even while pointing out that Kerala led many other States in terms of living standards, Mr. Vijayan said that there were certain regions that continued to suffer from various inadequacies.
The government went ahead with steps to alleviate the victims of the lopsided development through missions that have been launched in four key social sectors.
7,555 houses rebuilt
The Chief Minister also said that the government has rebuilt 7,555 out of the 16,088 houses that were damaged in the last floods.
The construction of 5,355 houses was fast progressing. Besides, the repair of 2,84,557 houses were taken up at a cost of ₹1,557 crore. He added that the government has disbursed welfare pensions amounting to ₹1,971 crore during Onam. Since coming into power, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government managed to clear welfare pension arrears amounting ₹1,477.92 crore.
Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran presided over the function. Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan, Ports Minister Ramachandran Kadannapally, Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V.K. Prasanth, C. Divakaran, I.B. Satheesh, V.S. Sivakumar, MLAs, district panchayat president V.K. Madhu, and actors Keerthy Suresh and Tovino Thomas were also present on the occasion.
Following the inaugural session, renowned playback singer K.S. Chithra enthralled the audience with a music performance.
