The Hindu Business Line : Kerala urges Centre to send team to assess damage by floods

The Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, told the State Assembly on Monday that the Government had promptly apprised the Prime Minister of the flood situation and sought the visit of a Central team.

The Chief Minister said that a special meeting of the Cabinet was held on July 26 to assess the situation and it was decided to submit a memorandum to the Centre. A fax message was sent to the Prime Minister the very next day explaining the situation in the State.

He noted that Munnar was the worst-hit, where landslips had claimed eight lives. The Government has opened three relief camps to accommodate around 1,600 persons belonging to 333 houses affected by the floods.

Apart from extending financial assistance to the next of kin of persons killed, the Government had also sanctioned free ration for one month to the affected families. Those who had lost houses and land would be given 10 cents each if Government land was available and five cents each if private land was to be acquired.

The Chief Minister said that there were lessons to be learnt from the happenings. The most important of these related to the rampant encroachment in the area, indiscriminate construction activities taking place there and the environmental problems arising out of human intervention. The Government would like to hold discussions with all political parties to find lasting solutions to these problems, he added.

The Agriculture Minister, Ms K.R. Gowri, told the House that the single major reason for the crisis in the coir sector was gross mismanagement of the co-operatives.

The Minister said that out of 853 coir co-operatives in the State, 398 were liquidated long ago and 455 were "crawling" their way forward. Only 21 co-operatives were running on profit, she added.

Most of the co-operatives had fallen into difficult times on account of gross mismanagement. In many cases, funds allotted for the development of the societies had been cornered by the director board members and employees.

The Minister said that though the Government had sanctioned assistance for 130 societies, many of them were unable to utilise the funds.

The National Co-operatives Development Corporation (NCDC) was refusing to extend assistance to the co-operatives as none of them had repaid the amount they had already received.

The Government was now trying to promote self-help groups for coir workers. It also wanted to provide around 30,000 ratts as part of the infrastructure upgradation programme.

The Minister said that the Government had secured an additional assistance of Rs 14 crore from the Centre and was trying to get more funds.

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