Kerala rain: Comrade Cherian Philip accuses Kerala's LDF govt of 'betraying people's trust'

Cherian Philip.
Cherian Philip.

Thiruvananthapuram: With Kerala reeling under the impact of heavy rains and landslides, the Left government in the state has been attacked on all fronts, including from within its ranks.

Left sympathiser Cherian Philip posted a strongly-worded post on Facebook, in which he has criticised the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government for 'betraying the people's trust'.

Philip's social media assault came shortly after Leader of Opposition, VD Satheesan, said that the LDF government had not learned from the lessons of the floods in 2018 and 2019 that caused massive destruction to lives and property.

“Those in power singing elegies and shedding tears at rehabilitation camps after not doing enough to mitigate the calamities is a betrayal of people's trust,” Cherian Philip wrote.

The former chairman of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation asked about the Netherlands model that the government had proposed for flood-prone areas in the state after the 2018, 2019 floods.

In 2019, government representatives had toured Europe and said a Netherlands model will be incorporated in the Rebuild Kerala initiative. “No one knows about the follow-up action,” Philip said in his post.

Claiming that the government had ridden its luck, Philip wrote: “If the low-pressure in the Arabian Sea had not waned and the rains not tapered off, in the event of all dams discharging water, most districts in Kerala would have gone under the water.”

Philip, who began his post by saying Kerala can expect floods and drought anytime ended the note by saying that “if the man does not end the exploitation of western ghats, rains and landslides will become a norm. Those killing the nature and environment are also sacrificing human lives.”

'Don't repeat the mistakes of 2018'
VD Satheesan addressed the media after the Idukki and Idamalayar dams started discharging water on Tuesday.

Satheesan accused the government of doing nothing to remove silt from the river basins. “After 2018 floods, rivers had become shallow due to sedimentation, and the government made no efforts to remove those in the last three years,” Satheesan said.

He claimed that Kerala has again become “an ecologically fragile land” and that temporary relief and rehabilitation programmes won't suffice. “Risk mitigation schemes must be planned and executed,” he said.

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