The State government will approach the Centre for the revival of the Kuttanad package, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was speaking at a high-level meeting convened to review the flood relief operations in Alappuzha and Kottayam districts at the TDMC Golden Jubilee auditorium here on Sunday.
“We will approach the Union government to initiate measures to complete the revival of the Kuttanad package. A draft plan will be submitted to the Centre for the protection of water resources and construction of panchayat-level storage facilities in the region,” Mr. Vijayan said.
The Chief Minister said the government would contemplate setting up of a flood warning system in Kuttanad. “The State government will make effective interventions in Kuttanad. Multi-purpose shelter homes will be constructed in different parts of the region for shifting people during floods. The construction technology that prevents entry of water into a building during floods will be experimented. For this, we will bring amendments to the legislation, if needed. Solar power projects will be set up to deal with power outages during floods. The government will consider declaring a moratorium on agricultural loans. The next Cabinet meeting will take further steps in this regard,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that special officers would be appointed in all departments to coordinate the relief operations. Mr. Vijayan directed the Education Deputy Director to prepare a detailed plan to compensate the lost classes due to floods.
Further. Mr. Vijayan said panchayat and taluk level adalats would be conducted to help people who lost documents in floods. He directed the District Collectors to approach banks to provide loans to the flood-affected people. The Kerala Financial Corporation and cooperative banks should consider providing loans to small scale traders, the Chief Minister said.
Mr. Vijayan assured that effective steps had been taken to tackle disease outbreaks in flood-hit areas. Revenue, Health and Local Self-Government Departments under the aegis of the Suchitwa Mission should conduct cleaning drives in the affected areas on a priority basis. Road repair works would be executed in a proper and effective manner. Special emphasis would be given to the maintenance of the Alappuzha-Changanassery (AC) Road, the Chief Minister said.
“We have passed a major phase in the history of the State and Kuttanad. The flood situation was unprecedented, but we have written a new chapter in relief operations. This could be seen as a Kuttanadan model,” Mr. Vijayan said.
Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran presided. Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan; Water Resources Minister Mathew T. Thomas; Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar; Civil Supplies Minister P. Thilothaman; Health Minister K.K. Shylaja; Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac; MLAs Thomas Chandy, A.M. Arif, U. Pratibha Hari, R. Rajesh, and Saji Cherian; district panchayat president G. Venugopal; Chief Secretary P.H. Kurian; Kottayam District Collector B.S. Thirumeni; Alappuzha District Collector S. Suhas; and others attended the meeting.