Health Minister K.K. Shylaja has said the losses caused by flooding and landslips in parts of the district will be assessed in two or three days by teams comprising panchayat-village overseers, agricultural officers, and people’s representatives.
Addressing a meeting of officials and people’s representatives at Iritty here on Saturday to review the relief measures, the Minister said village-level public hearings would be held at panchayat offices in the affected areas on August 16. The hearings are meant for those who could not present their losses earlier. Directing officials to estimate the loss caused by destruction of roads, bridges, power systems, and buildings, she said arrangements should be made to restore the damaged banks of rivers.
Calling upon local bodies in Iritty and Taliparamba taluks to lead relief measures, Ms. Shylaja said the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme should also be utilised for cleaning houses and wells and making damaged roads and bridges serviceable. She told the meeting that the government was making efforts to provide the maximum possible compensation to those who had lost their houses and crops. Alternative arrangements will be made for those who lost their land due to landslips, she said.
In the public works sector alone, the calamity caused losses running into crores of rupees, she noted. The government anticipates adequate compensation from the Centre to meet the losses, she pointed out. MLAs K.C. Joseph and Sunny Joseph, District Collector Mir Muhammad Ali, and District Panchayat President K.V. Sumesh were present. The Minister later visited areas affected by landslips in Iritty taluk.