Flood relief: All-party team from Kerala to meet PM today

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan will lead an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar, revenue minister E Chandrashekaran and other party leaders will be part of the delegation.

Though the delegation will put forward a bevy of demands for the state, the thrust will be on compensation for flood-affected districts of the state. The team will be urging the prime minister to send a central team to assess the damage caused to the crops and households in the floods.

Already, Vijayan has written to Union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking central assistance for flood relief operations. In his letter, Vijayan said about 27,000 people were living in relief camps and 965 villages have been badly hit.

National disaster response force has been deployed in Alappuzha and Kottayam. The state has demanded more force from the Centre to assist the state machinery. The assistance of the military has also been sought for emergencies, he said.

The chief minister urged the Union minister to release the compensation sought by the state government for the damages caused by Ockhi cyclone. Though the state had demanded Rs 7,340 crore, the Centre has not taken a decision on it, he added.

Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the Centre would be sending an expert team to assess the damages caused by the flood in the state.

He was replying to questions raised by MPs A Sampath and K C Venugopal.

The state delegation will also demand to reinstate the ration quota, which has been cut down and a speedy decision on the execution of the rail coach factory at Kanjikode. The state would also be putting forward the recommendations submitted by the state government on Kasturirangan report, which has not been considered by the Centre.