Thiruvananthapuram, Aug. 22 (IANS): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday pressed the Modi government to accept the $100 million aid offered by the UAE for flood relief as the numbers sheltered in over 3,000 camps in the state rose to 1.2 million.
Vijayan’s comments came as Congress leaders too, in a rare show of political unanimity, urged the central government not to reject the Rs 700 crore offered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), home to hundreds of thousands of Keralites.
There were no rains for a second day in Kerala. Thousands returned to their flood-hit homes to clean up and start life anew. But many more were simply dazed on seeing what remained of their homes.
A labourer, Rocky, committed suicide after seeing his flood-battered house near Eranakulam, police said. He is survived by his wife and two children.
It was the third such suicide since the waters began to recede after the century’s worst flooding in Kerala. Health Minister K.K. Shailaja said people were distressed and announced counselling sessions at relief camps.
Vijayan said that over 1.2 million people were still in 3,314 relief camps across the state after having all or most of their possessions.
“Today there was none to be rescued. It shows that our first phase of operations - rescue - has been successful,” he said.
Vijayan said that according to the National Disaster Policy of 2016, funds from foreign governments can be accepted.
“As soon as this (UAE) aid was announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that this was an indeed welcome gesture.
“Now with media reports, if need be, we will speak to the Prime Minister,” he said.
India has refused to accept overseas donations for flood relief in Kerala, Thailand’s Ambassador to India Chutintorn Sam Gongsakdi said.
Vijayan said the UAE “cannot be considered any other nation”. “Indians, especially Keralites, have contributed immensely in their nation building,” he said.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan had telephoned Modi and made the offer of assistance, the Chief Minister had said earlier.
Two former Congress Chief Ministers, A.K. Antony and Oommen Chandy, urged the Modi government to rewrite rules so that financial support from abroad could be accepted.
The central government’s offer of help to Kerala was “disappointing”, Chandy added.
Even as the number of people in the relief camps has gone up, people were seen returning to their homes in Kozhikode, Malappuram, Pathanamthitta, parts of Thrissur and Ernakulam.
A large number of volunteers was seen engaging in cleaning up operations of houses that had been submerged in water for days.
Earlier, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala told the media that the flood tragedy was caused by lack of coordination between the Power Minister, the Water
Resource Ministers and the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB).
“This monsoon, Kerala received 41.44 per cent more rains and all the (sluice gates of the) dams were opened without proper analysis or impact studies... People were totally unaware that the dams were being opened,” he said.
“This is nothing but a man-made disaster.”
Vijayan hit back, saying this was not the time for fault-finding. In any case, he accused Chennithala of speaking without knowing the facts.
“What one should realise is that from August 14 to 17, in Idukki alone 811 mm of rain was received, which is more than double of what it normally gets.
“It was just not the dam waters but rain water added to the flooding... In some areas where floods occurred there are no dams.”
Dam Safety Authority Chairman Justice (retd) C.N. Ramachandran Nair added: “Things are being exaggerated and I do not believe all the allegations that have been raised are true.
Floods in the river Godavari in East and West Godavari districts in the last one week caused damage to the tune of Rs 600 crore, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said here today.
He announced a compensation of Rs 25,000 per hectare to the crops damaged in the flood.
The Chief Minister stated this after conducting an aerial survey of the affected areas.
Paddy crop in about 11,000 hectares in the two districts
considered the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh remained submerged, though agriculture department officials see some chance of revival once the water in the fields dries up.
Cotton too suffered extensive damage in about 1,300 hectares, but there is no chance of any revival, the officials said.
Official sources said the state government would submit a report on the flood damages to the Centre, seeking financial assistance, after a complete assessment in the next few days.
The two districts have been ravaged by the floods for the past six days.
The Chief Minister reviewed the situation with Collectors of the two districts and other officials in Rajamahendravaram airport and later told reporters that steps would be taken to overcome the submergence problem of Erra Kalava (red canal) on a permanent basis.
“This canal caused the major damage in West Godavari district,” he pointed out.
Causeways damaged in the flood would be rebuilt while roads in the region would be repaired at a cost of Rs 35 crore, he added.
Meanwhile, the Godavari continued to be in spate with the flood discharge crossing 15.24 lakh cusecs at Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in Dowaleswaram by this evening.
The discharge that was 14,34,636 cusecs late last night, rose to 15,24,268 cusecs this afternoon and remained steady.
On the other hand, flood discharge in river Krishna at Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada fell by half to just about 75,107 cusecs this evening from a high of 1.50 lakh cusecs last evening.
Inflow into the Srisailam reservoir, however, witnessed a sharp increase today with the level almost touching the Full Reservoir Level (FRL).
Srisailam now holds 206.1 tmc ft of water at 883.3 feet as against the FRL of 215 tmc ft (885 ft), and as such, 2,12,365 cusecs was being released into the Nagarjuna Sagar dam downstream.
Copious inflows of 1,83,579 cusecs from Srisailam has resulted in Nagarjuna Sagar slowing inching towards the FRL, with the storage now at 216.88 tmc ft (553.2 feet).
However, about 100 tmc ft more water is required for Nagarjuna Sagar to fill to its capacity of 312 tmc feet.
The Modi government’s offer of help to Kerala in the wake of the worst flooding in a century is “disappointing”, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said on Wednesday. The Congress leader also expressed unhappiness that the Centre had reportedly refused to accept monetary help offered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is home to hundreds of thousands of Keralites.
“I am sorry that the financial assistance announced by the government of India is quite disappointing as far as the magnitude of the crisis is concerned,” Chandy said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said Kerala was expecting reasonable monetary help to overcome the crisis caused by the floods that have claimed some 370 lives since monsoon rains began on May 29 and forced a million people to take shelter in relief camps this month.
“It is a great relief to the people of Kerala that so many kind hearted persons and social organisations across the country and abroad consider this disaster as their own matter (and) offered unbelievable help to us for managing this tragedy,” added Chandy. He urged Modi to remove obstacles against acceptance of foreign financial aid.
The Cochin International Airport, shut on August 15 due to floods, will reopen on August 29, it was announced on Wednesday.
The airport had said on Tuesday that it would resume operations on August 26.
The airport was closed on August 15 after it was flooded when various dams in Idukki district opened their sluice gates in the wake of torrential rains. Officials said the opening had been put off by three days as 90 per cent of the staff had been affected by Kerala’s worst flooding in a century and they needed to report to work.
The airport was first closed on August 9, for a few hours, and then on August 15. The Cochin airport is one of three airports in Kerala and also the busiest.
