Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan calls on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the latter’s office at the Government Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on August 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan called on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the latter’s office at the Government Secretariat on Tuesday (August 13, 2024) and sought a total loan waiver for families and individuals displaced by the catastrophic landslides in Wayanad.
Mr. Satheesan said the government should urge public and private sector banks to offer permanent deferrals on loan repayments.
Mr. Satheesan proposed bipartisan legislation to formulate a new law guaranteeing fair compensation and rehabilitation for victims of natural disasters.
Expressing support for the government’s rehabilitation programme for Wayanad district, Mr. Satheesan said the Opposition would construct 100 houses at the proposed township for the landslide victims.
“The government should provide arable land to those who lost their farms to the landslides. It should reskill displaced families and individuals so they could become financially self-reliant and self-employed,” he added.
He urged Mr. Vijayan to invest in modern artificial intelligence-powered rain and seismic sensor networks to set up a modern weather prediction system with a reduced margin of error, which would save lives and property.
Mr. Satheesan said Odisha had used such a model to prevent deaths caused by recurring cyclones. Manipur relied on a state-of-the-art earthquake warning system to move people out of danger zones before disaster struck.
Mr. Satheesan stressed the need to “re-zone” Kerala to demarcate landslide and flooding-prone areas with a long-term view to relocate communities to safer grounds.
He said disaster zones should have shelters on standby to evacuate families from dangerous zones.
Mr. Satheesan said climate change-resilient infrastructure and environment-friendly development projects were the need of the hour.
Special package for Vilangad sought
The Opposition Leader demanded a special package for the landslide-devastated suburban Vilangad in Kozhikode district.
He said earthfall had destroyed 21 houses and irreparably damaged 150 houses. It also destroyed arable land and caused considerable crop loss. Indigenous knowledge that swollen and muddied rivers could be the harbinger of a landslide saved lives at Vilangad.
Mr. Satheesan said teak cultivation was Vilangad’s mainstay. The government should compensate the growers for the lost timber.
He said the landslide destroyed seven bridges and scores of village roads.
