The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) walked out of the Assembly on Wednesday accusing the government of having failed to accord priority to rehabilitation works for those affected in the August floods and to speed up Rebuild Kerala Initiative.
UDF legislators and lone BJP legislator O. Rajagopal walked out after Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan refused permission for an adjournment motion moved by Congress legislator V.D. Satheesan. Moving the motion, Mr. Satheesan said the government had done nothing even two months after the House held a special session on the floods on December 5 last year.
‘‘Rehabilitation works, disbursement of compensation to the affected, reconstruction of houses and Rebuild Kerala Initiative are not in the priority list of the government. It has got entangled in the red tapism in Secretariat and other things top the list,” he said.
The Congress legislator asked how the number of houses fully damaged had come down by 3,000 in the list read out by Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan from the original list of 16,000. The number of houses should have gone up as the complaints had increased.
Pointing out the case of Johnny of Chendamangalam who failed to make it to the list despite seven fact finding teams visiting the house, Mr. Satheesan said the government had given instructions to the officials to reduce the number of houses.
The Congress legislator lashed out at the government for not failing to reconstruct rural roads and river banks washed away in the devastating floods. Banks had failed to provide loans for those who lost all household equipment. The compensation of ₹30,000 provided for lost cow was less as the actual cost was ₹70,000. The government had failed to utilise less than 25% of the ₹ 7,174 crore it had mobilised from various sources.
Opposing the motion, the Revenue Minster said top priority was accorded to flood relief works, rehabilitation and Rebuild Kerala Initiative. As many as 13,362 houses were destroyed and owners of 7,428 houses had informed that they would rebuild on their own. The first instalment has been given to 9,341 persons and reconstruction works has begun.
The financial assistance of ₹10,000 had been given to 77,041 families till date and the deadline for filing the appeal will end on Thursday. The Minister said the government would ensure that all eligible would get the assistance. Till December 23, the government had allocated ₹1,501.3 crore under various heads and ₹898.1 crore had been utilised from the State Disaster Management Fund.
Before announcing the walkout, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala demanded an inquiry by a sitting high court judge with technical expert as member to find out the reason for the deluge and setting up a tribunal for the disbursement of the compensation.
