Nearly 8.5 lakh in camps, rescue in final stages, says Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the massive rescue mission mounted by the state has “more or less” come to an end. “There are only a very few people marooned in remote areas. Efforts to trace them and shift them to safer locations will continue,” the chief minister said on Sunday. He said the primary mission was to save lives.

“This has come to a successful conclusion. The next step is to bring back normalcy,” he said. He said that 8,46,680 people have been lodged in 3,734 relief camps opened by local bodies in flood-affected areas. “From rescue we have reached a stage where relief will be the focus,” Pinarayi Vijayan said.

People will have to remain in camps for a little while more. Before sending them back, their homes and surroundings will have to be put in order. “The homes will not be in their old condition. Power and water connections will have to be restored.

The polluted water in the area, in wells and tanks and nearby water sources, will have to be purified. Also, the drinking water pipes that have been broken will have to be restored,” the chief minister said. He said the work would begin once the waters receded, and would be carried out on a war footing.

Massive sanitation drive

Then there is the issue of sanitation. “The insides of the houses will be full of slush. If hygiene is not established, there is the chance of an epidemic outbreak,” the chief minister said. The Haritha Kerala Mission will coordinate the sanitation drive with the help of local bodies and volunteers.

The chief minister said huge public participation was required for the effort. He said individuals could volunteer for the drive. There will be an officer in each affected village to lead the sanitation drive. It is not necessary that those who volunteer have prior experience in such largescale cleaning drive. “There will be health inspectors to give them instructions on how to go about purifying water sources,” the chief minister said. The will be six health inspectors each in a village. The Health Department will soon prepare of list of such the health inspectors. The Fire Force, too, will also be part of the process.

The health and local self government additional chief secretaries will supervise the sanitation drive.

Pharma cos to supply medicines

The chief minister said that pharmaceutical companies have offered to provide medicines in large quantities. “there are people in the camp who require urgent attention, say for instance dialysis patients who had to be parted from their machines.

Such patients will be immediately shifted to a hospital,” Pinarayi Vijayan said. He said the state had the facility to meet any medical emergency. “The private hospitals, too, are part of the effort,” he said.

Further, other states too have promised to supply medicines. A nodal officer will be appointed to distribute the medicines provided by pharma companies and other states to the right destination.

Restoring rail and road network

Another priority would be to revive the road and railway network. “Railway officials, after holding a high level meeting today, assured us that rail services would be restored on a war footing,” the chief minister said.

The roads present a bigger challenge for the state. “PWD and national highway authorities have told us that the network can be made motorable soon enough though certain stretches have been completely washed away,” the chief minister said. “We have asked KSRTC to resume long distance services,” he said.

The destruction of roads is huge. Preliminary estimate has pegged the loss at Rs 4441 crore. 221 bridges have been either partially or fully damaged by the floods. “Right now, 59 bridges are under water,” the chief minister said. The plan is to earmark Rs 1000 crore as initial funds for the restoration of the road network.

School books delivered free

The chief minister said that there would be no delay in providing documents that had been lost in the floods. “Instead of going to each and every department, there will be an IT-based system where all that is required could be accessed from a single window,” he said.

The chief minister also said that school books lost in the floods would be delivered to children free of cost. He said that 36 lakh books had already been printed.

Kerala Books and Publishing Society has been asked to distribute the books based on a list that would be provided by the Education Department.

Fishermen sacrifice to be rewarded

The chief minister said the sacrifice of the fishermen would be rewarded. “we will ensure that the boats are returned in the same condition as they were brought to the rescue,” he said. There are boats that have been badly damaged.

Pinarayi Vijayan said such damages would be compensated. Besides, each boat will get a daily financial support of Rs 3000 in addition to the daily fuel expenses for all the days it is employed for rescue.