Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Centre’s late declaration of the Mundakkai-Chooralmala tragedy as a disaster of “severe nature” had deprived the disaster-affected in Wayanad of the benefits of an early confirmation.
“If we had got this confirmation at least two months after the disaster, it would have been possible for us to secure extra social benefits from UN institutions and NGOs,” the Chief Minister said on Wednesday while unveiling the Wayanad Township project. “Now that other tragedies have happened in other parts of the country, it is not clear to what extent we can avail of such benefits. The inordinate delay has denied us a big opportunity,” the CM said.
Vijayan said the Centre had also turned its back on the “primary demand” made by Kerala to write off the debts of the disaster-affected. “The Centre is authorised to waive debts under Section 13 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Yet, the Centre continues to be indifferent,” he said.
The CM said that the Prime Minister should immediately convene a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority to consider Kerala’s request to write off the debts of the affected in Wayanad urgently.
Nonetheless, the CM said that Kerala would explore other possibilities that had been opened up by the Centre’s declaration of the disaster as one of a ‘severe nature’.
One, he said the government would attempt to use 25% of Central schemes for disaster relief. Two, he said Kerala could demand an additional 50% from the SASCA (Scheme for Special Assistance to State for Capital Investment) for the reconstruction of affected areas. Three, he said Kerala could request all MPs in the country to set apart a certain amount in their MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) for Wayanad’s reconstruction.
Kerala had requested declaring the disaster as one of a ‘severe nature’ on August 17 itself, and the Inter-Ministerial Central Team – IMCT) had acted promptly.
“Within a month of the tragedy, the IMCT had recommended to the Union Home Ministry to declare the Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide as a disaster of ‘extreme severe nature’. This recommendation, which should have been taken up urgently, languished in the dark because the high-level committee did not convene for two months,” the CM said.
“After the high-level committee met, a letter was sent to Kerala only in December (more than two months after the ICMT made the recommendation). But even in this letter, it was not stated that the disaster was of a ‘severe nature’,” he said.
Now, after relentless pressure put by the state government, the Chief Minister said the Centre had finally categorised the disaster as one of ‘severe nature’.