THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The main Opposition Congress on Monday urged the state government to provide land along with the promised amount to those who lost their home and land during the recent floods and landslides. KPCC president M M Hassan told reporters here the households thus affected should be given land plus Rs 10 lakh assistance.
He said government officers are being used to forcibly collect money from the public for relief and rehabilitation works and cited Pathanamthitta - where the District Collector had directed 788 officers to collect funds from the public - as a case in point. The rebuilding process will suffer if the government staffers are deployed for the purpose, according to Hassan.
Underscoring the need for rehabilitation to be carried out on a war footing, the KPCC chief said the camaraderie shown by the political parties during the rescue operations is absent during the ongoing relief and rehabilitation which can be put down to lack of proper communication from the government’s part.
According to Hassan, after the Chief Minister left for the US the Cabinet meetings couldn’t be convened since the minister put in charge of convening the Cabinet session is unable to do so.
He recalled during the 2004 tidal tragedy, the-then UDF Ministers used to evaluate the developments on a daily basis. Though the north-east monsoon is expected to set in shortly, the pre-emptive measures for tackling any adverse fall-out have been tardy and the government should carefully monitor the weather forecast to avert a catastrophe similar to the one triggered by the south-west monsoon.
The government should take urgent steps to restore the people’s self-confidence which had been dealt a terrible blow. Hassan said never before in the state’s history had funds(Rs 1,300 crore) on such a scale been received for disaster relief as the present one and these should be utilised properly. The funds should be utilised only for flood rehabilitation and relief. He called for the Dam Safety Authority to be sacked with immediate effect and wondered what the KSEB’s Dam Safety wing had done during the flood havoc.
Instead of the one-year moratorium announced for farm loans, the government should write off agricultural loans of up to Rs 5 lakh since the moratorium will not serve any purpose as the affected farmers have lost their livelihood and it will be well nigh impossible for them to repay the loan even after the cooling-off period ends.
The KPCC chief declined to take questions on the ISRO spy case while maintaining the Congress does not have an opinion on the issue. On K Karunakaran’s daughter and Congress leader Padmaja Venugopal’s charge about five state Congress leaders having orchestrated her father’s ouster from the CM’s post, Hassan merely said, “I don’t know anything about it and it is for Padmaja to clarify.”
Regarding the nuns’ ongoing agitation seeking justice, Hassan said, “ The Congress is giving moral support to the agitating nuns and all our woman leaders have visited the venue of the agitation and expressed solidarity with them.” As to whether the bishop accused of misconduct will indeed be arrested, he said, “It’s up to the investigating officers to take the call and I don’t want to say anything.”