Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 30 The Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, today said that losses from the recent floods on lives, livelihood, roads, houses and infrastructure in Kerala may exceed the size of the state's Annual Plan.

He said this while making the introductory remarks on a special one-day session of the State Assembly to discuss the impact of the floods and reconstruction and rebuilding of the State.

483 dead, 14 missing

Initially, the State Government had put the losses at Rs 20,000 crore. The size of its annual Plan is Rs 29,150 crore, minus Centrally sponsored projects. According to the Chief Minister, at the last count, the death toll from the floods is 483, with at least 14 persons still unaccounted for. Another 140 are still under medical treatment for various injuries/ailment.

Standing crops over an estimated 57,000 hectares have been destroyed. The Chief Minister attributed the destructive floods to excess monsoon that dumped three times more rain than forecast. A fortnight after the horrendous event, 59,296 persons are still put up at the relief camps even as a massive effort has been launched to prevent the outbreak of epidemics/communicable diseases.

Earlier, the House paid homage to those who lost their lives in one of the worst natural disasters witnessed in a century and extended a 'big salute' to all involved in the massive relief and rescue operations. The loss of lives was kept to a minimum only because of the involvement of ordinary people as well as diverse agencies, including Central forces, who had rushed in to save lives.

“Will overcome’’

The Chief Minister said that the State was faced with a huge challenge of rebuilding itself, but it was fully confident about meeting it thanks to support flowing in from within and outside the country.

"We have adequately displayed our survival instincts following cyclone Ockhi and the Nipah outbreak. We are a people who are capable of overcoming this challenge as well," the Chief Minister said.

The State, he said, would welcome support from every quarter even while thinking twice about the way forward, as anything that is demonstrably out of tune with its ecology, needs to be eschewed henceforth.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress stuck to its stand that the disaster was largely man-made, compounded by the condemnable management of the 82 dams in the State. "Who else is responsible for opening out all of them together?," asked VD Satheesan, prominent member of the party. This was persisted with even during the period of high tide, he charged.

Controlled release from the dams in advance in tune with the respective levels could have salvaged the situation. But he extended whole support for the efforts to rebuild the State.

Jarring notes

Earlier, two ruling party MLAs from the worst-affected Chengannur and Ranni, who had raised dissent over the rescue operations and release of water from dams were not allotted time to speak. This was sign of a clear disapproval from the CPI(M) leadership, despite MLAs Saji Cherian and Raju Abraham, boasting impeccable credentials and popularity in the respective constituencies.

Cherian is just four months old in the Assembly after he won the Chengannur byelection, defeating PS Sridharan Pillai, now president of state BJP, by an impressive margin. On his part, Raju Abraham is currently serving the fifth term as an MLA from Ranni, and was touted to be among the hopefuls for a ministership in the now two-year-old Left Democratic Front government.

Separately, VS Achuthanandan, senior CPI(M) leader, former Chief Minister and one-time trenchant critic of Pinarayi Vijayan, made potshots at the developmental views of the government. "While it is true that the floods and landslips were triggered by the torrential rain, it is equally true that it was made worse by the compromises with nature perpetuated in these areas," he said.

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