Kerala govt denies delay in Wayanad rehabilitation as alleged by UDF

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Tuesday denied in Assembly the allegations of Congress-led UDF that state was delaying the rehabilitation of the Wayanad landslides victims, following which the opposition staged a walkout from the House.

State Revenue Minister K Rajan said it was the Centre which did not provide any financial assistance for the rehabilitation and only in February they provided a long-term loan of around Rs 530 crore.

The minister further said that it was the Centre which delayed designating the landslides as a disaster of severe nature, while the state government right from the start has taken various measures, including waiving loans given by Kerala Bank, to ease the suffering of the victims.

However, instead of blaming the central government, the opposition was accusing the state government of delaying the rehabilitation efforts, he contended and opposed the UDF demand to adjourn the business of the House for the day to discuss the measures taken for the Wayanad disaster victims' rehabilitation and welfare.

In view of the stand taken by Rajan, Speaker A N Shamseer denied permission to the adjournment notice moved by the UDF MLAs, including T Siddique, who alleged that the state government has done nothing for the victims in the eight months since the disaster on July 30 last year which wiped out three villages in the Meppadi panchayat of Wayanad district and claimed over 200 lives.

Siddique, while raising the issue, also accused the Centre of neglecting the needs of the disaster victims.

Speaking against the denial of permission for the adjournment notice, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan said the government did not do anything for several months to cover treatment and higher education costs of those affected by the disaster.

He said if the Centre was not doing anything or was delaying the designation of the disaster as one of severe nature, the state government should have found alternative means to help the victims financially.

"The list of the disaster affected victims has not yet been finalised even after eight months since the landslides. Many of those affected are not even mentioned in the draft lists issued by the government," Satheesan alleged.

He contended that the government was citing technical reasons for not doing the needful for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims since the disaster.

"You are getting trapped in your own red tape," he alleged.

Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MLA and deputy LoP in the Assembly P K Kunhalikutty, said the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to blame for not providing financial assistance for the rehabilitation and relief work.

At the same time he said that the state government was responsible for breaking the momentum to help the victims that was there after the disaster.

"You broke the momentum. All you had to do was coordinate all the help being offered by volunteer organisations and political parties and things would have been much better now," he claimed.