THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Coming up with an elaborate draft to rebuild Kerala, the state cabinet has formulated an organisational structure to streamline projects to rebuild the flood-ravaged state.The five-tier panel will have the state cabinet on top followed by an advisory panel, a high power committee, an implementation committee and a secretariat system.
“The state was able to take forward rescue and relief works through coordinated efforts by various departments and agencies. Hence the cabinet decided to set up a similar structure for rebuilding efforts too,” said the Chief Minister at the post-cabinet briefing. The government hopes to implement the projects in a time-bound and transparent manner. At the top of the structure will be the cabinet, which should clear all projects.
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee chaired by the Chief Minister will have Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, Union Minister Alphonse Kannamthanam, ministers E Chandrasekharan, Mathew T Thomas, A K Saseendran and Ramachandran Kadannappally, chief secretary, Planning Board vice chairman, T K A Nair and K M Chandrasekhar.
There will also be prominent names representing various sectors like young entrepreneur Byju Raveendran of Byju’s App, former HUDCO chairman V Suresh, Alice Vaidyan, NRK businessman M A Yusuffali, K P Kannan of CDS and Muralee Thummarukudy. The panel will provide necessary advice and overall guidance for various projects. The first meeting of the panel will be on October 22.
Empowered Committee
At the third level will be a high-powered committee chaired by the Chief Secretary. It will be in-charge of vetting the proposals that come up before the advisory panel and the cabinet in addition to coordinating with various departments, proposing guidelines and advising the government on resource mobilisation.
It will also monitor the implementation of various projects and schemes cleared by the cabinet. With Principal Secretary V Venu as CEO, the committee will have secretaries of various departments and two-nominated ex-officio members and the Chief Minister’s Secretary.
A three-member execution panel will implement projects. It will be chaired by former chief secretary K M Abraham and will have V Venu as CEO in addition to CM’s secretary M Sivasankar.
There will be a professionally-run Secretariat system to implement the rebuild projects. There will be district-level panels to supervise and execute the projects. The procurement of services and materials for reconstruction is a major responsibility and will be entrusted with an expert agency.
Action plan for fund collection
The CM said keeping in mind the requirement, the state has come up with a detailed perspective on financial assistance. It Includes:
Restructuring of budgetary allocations for various departments
Additional funds available once the borrowing limit is increased
State share from Centrally-sponsored schemes and National Disaster Response Fund
Feasible funds from Central schemes
Assistance from multilateral agencies like World Bank and ADB
Crowd Funding, CMDRF funds
Assistance from bilateral agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency
Assistance from NABARD, HUDCO