A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday suggested that the State government devise a scientific formula for determining the minimum compensation for the flood-affected in the State.
The Bench of Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar made the suggestion when a public interest ligation seeking to set up a special tribunal for assessing the damage and fixing the compensation for the flood victims came up before it.
The court orally suggested that there be strong parameters for fixing the compensation and it should be published for the information of the public. The parameters could be based on the level of inundation, the extent of holdings and the improvement made on the land before flood ravaged it.
The court said the deployment of local self-government officers to assess the loss was not based on any formula. There was no need to wait for the report of revenue officials when the damage could be assessed on the basis of satellite images. Besides, the parameters for assessment might vary from officer to officer.
The victims should not be left to the mercy of the officials. If the government starts to fix compensation on a shaky foundation, there would be a flood of litigation. The formulation of scientific parameters would also enable the government to pay the compensation in proportional to the damages and would have have some correlation with the damages caused by the flood, the court orally observed.
Advocate General C.P. Sudhakara Prasad submitted that the government had fixed the compensation at ₹10,000 as immediate relief. Besides, ₹4 lakhs each had been sanctioned for each family which lost houses.
In his petition, P.K. Firoz, Youth League Leader, alleged that the relief and rehabilitation measures, including the proposed manner of assessment of damage and distribution of compensation, remained hazy. The petitioner said the identification and distribution of the compensation should not be entrusted to lower officials of the Revenue or other department. The petitioner feared that the disbursement of compensation would be susceptible to the political expediency of the day.
