The floods that ravaged
Kerala in August 2018 is now history. Most of the dams had been filled to
capacity by the first week of August itself and the Met people had been
predicting continuous rains. But those who were to take decisions to avert any
crisis weren’t seeing eye to eye. There were talks of conflict between the
Minister for Electricity, who wanted to store as much water as possible to
produce as much electricity as possible to make as much profit as possible and
the Irrigation Minister who was responsible for managing the dams. One of the
jokes shared on social media was that the Electricity Minister had studied only
up to 4th standard and dams were taught only in the fifth standard. When
ministers don’t see eye to eye on issues the ball will naturally be in the
court of the Chief Minister.
Jokes apart, the citizens
of Kerala paid a heavy price for having an ignorant, indifferent bunch of
ministers in the State Cabinet. Even Wikipedia states that all the 80 dams in
Kerala were opened on a single day on 15 Aug 2018.
Before going ahead, a
flashback to an application under the RTI Act that sought to disclose the roles,
responsibilities, competence, training and equipping of the District Disaster
Management Team (DDMT) of Palakkad, would not be out of place.
On 26 Nov 2012 there was a
function in the Conference Hall of the Collectorate, Palakkad. A casual enquiry
revealed that it was a training being organized for the DDMT. On 02 December,
an application was submitted to the Public Information Officer of the
Collectorate to get information on the definition of disaster, the organisation
of various teams, their responsibilities, training and resources provided and
the cost of organizing the function on 26/11/2012.
The Public Information
Officer informed that any natural calamity, accident or explosions were to be
considered disasters. The function in
the Conference Hall was a training class on the operation of the District
Emergency Operation Center and the attendees were the staff of the Collectorate
and Taluk Offices (about 230 in number). An expenditure of Rs 27,000/- had been
incurred for providing refreshments. For the rest of the info sought the reply
was a simple ‘Steps are being taken for the formation of a Disaster Management
Team in the District.’ The order, dated 22 May 2014, by Mr Gunavardhan,
Information Commissioner, directed the PIO to provide the copies of the
complete documents in the relevant file free of cost. (In the context of the
RTI Act, the failure to impose the mandated penalty of Rs 25000/- was a
subversion of the law by the IC. Also the cost of copies provided was an
unwarranted burden on the state exchequer/tax payer. It also should have been
recovered from the defaulting PIO. ) But suffice to say that as far as the DMT
was considered it had not been formed, and if formed later, it had been
confined to the paper only.
Cut to Aug 2018. Nature
ran a trailer of the floods, in Palakkad on the night of 8-9 Aug, before it
stuck with full fury in the southern districts from 15 Aug onwards. For a
report on the floods from the ring side, please read the articles at http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4782 and http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4812.
There after an application
was submitted to the PIO, Collectorate, Palakkad on 30 Aug 2018 seeking some
details about water levels in the district’s dams from 1/8/18, release of
waters etc. No information was provided. On first appeal, the Deputy Collector
(General) directed the PIO to provide the information held with them free of
cost and forward the copies of the application to certain other public
authorities for providing the information held with them.
Accordingly, the PIO
provided, on 16/1/19, copies of orders regarding assignment of duties to the
Sub Collector, dy collectors etc. The interesting information was that store
rooms for relief materials were opened at three locations and the assignment of
duties were done for the first time on 18/8/18, almost 10 days after the floods
wrecked havoc on unsuspecting citizens and the last was on 20/8/18.
List of relief camps
established on 9/8/18 was provided only for Palakkad Taluk. There were 20 camps
with 2214 inmates, as per the list. A list, as on 19/8 was also provided which
showed a total of 110 camps with 11,654 inmates. As per this list, the camps in
Palakkad Taluk were only 10 and the number of inmates was 1634.
Shockingly, no information
was provided on aid material received/distributed and the funds
allotted/expended.
The PIO of the office of
the District Medical Officer (Health) provided some information on 23/2/19
against payment of Rs 646/- for 323 pages. (The demand for cost was illegal as
the prescribed period of 30 days had been over even after receipt of the
application by their PIO. This is another indication of the failure to
implement even the RTI Act. But that is not the subject here). Of this, 284
pages were just invoices of medicines sent from Kerala Medical Services
Corporation Ltd under the Dept of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of Kerala to
various relief camps. There were 46 invoices with the average cost of drugs per
invoice being Rs 25,000/-. The other
documents pertained to various relief camps and assignment of doctors and para
medical staff. The list shows 104 camps with 11,633 inmates as on 23/8/18.
(That the list of relief camps did not tally with the list provided by the
Collectorate is just indicative of the lackadaisical way of functioning of our
public servants. The number of inmates, however, cannot be disputed, like
Birbal’s crows in Agra.)
The crunch issue here is
that there were no public servants assigned to monitor the functioning of the
camps, though the Deputy Collector (Land Revenue) had been assigned the tasks
of identifying the areas for
establishment of relief camps and provide adequate shelter for the affected
people; ensure unhindered supply of necessary relief materials such as food,
water, clothes and medicines.
One
interesting information is that the Health Department had allotted Rs
14,60,000/- for flood relief operations of which they had expended only Rs
4,89,001/-.
The PIO of the office of
the Executive Engineer, Irrigation, Malampuzha provided some information on
5/3/19 against payment of Rs 42/-.
Of the 11 dams in Palakkad,
the PIO had provided information only on 3 dams. The first warning about
opening the shutters of Malampuzha Dam, the biggest in Palakkad and the second
biggest in the State, was released on 19/7/18 through a letter initiated by the
EE and addressed to the District Collector. The water level then was 113m, 2.06
m short of the maximum level. On 3/8/18 it was just 0.06 m short of the maximum
level. The shutter was opened by just 3 cms on 5/8/18 and then to 150 cms on
9/8/18, the day many areas of Palakkad got inundated. (Unfortunately the
records do not show the date and time of closing the shutters. For 10/8/18, the
record shows that just the spillway was opened by 3 cms and on 11/8/18, the
shutter being opened by 6cms).
It is evident that while
the professionals had acted reasonably correctly it is the generalist decision
makers who had faltered. The most culpable crime is that the District Emergency
Operation Center had failed even to warn the people staying on the banks of
rivers and rivulets which had over flowed. The current in some of the streams
was such that even Maruti cars had been swept off by them.
The overall data provided
so far has no indication of any relief materials being provided or managed by
the authorities. While volunteers were working full throttle, the local MP
stirred up a controversy by demanding that all aid should be routed through the
Collector’s office. Thankfully for the victims, the volunteers just carried on
with their service. In a camp set up in our neighborhood, food and clothes were
provided by the local residents who were not affected. The ward member had
coordinated with households to provide food turn by turn.
Though
it was clear to everybody in the state that there was gross negligence by the
Government of Kerala in managing the water of the dams in the state, the
official indictment has come through a report, submitted on 27 Mar 2019 , by
the amicus curie appointed by the High Court of Kerala,. Over a dozen PILs had
been filed in the High Court to probe the lapses. Even Metroman E Sridharan had
approached the court for such a probe. The amicus curie, while prima facie
confirming the lapses, has suggested a more detailed probe by a committee
headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
Apart from the data
exposing the failure of the District Emergency Operation Center in preventing
the floods and warning the people, nothing had been done by the district
administration towards rehabilitation of the victims in Palakkad. Reports
suggest that even the Rs 10,000/- compensation offered to all victims, have not
been received by all. One of the victim families was heard saying that just to
clean their open well they had incurred an expenditure of Rs 11,000/-.
Meanwhile, Adv Jayasankar,
a political commentator, while commenting on the Amicus Curie report was heard recollecting
how the Tsunami funds had been misused. He
said this fund was used to cover the floor of the Labour Court in Ernakulam,
working in a rented premise, with ceramic tiles. The commentary in Malayalam
can be accessed at https://youtu.be/aQV9kxh7mC8.
Even under these
excruciating circumstances, there has been no responsible behavior by those
wielding authority on behalf of the people. The Chief Minister of Kerala,
presiding over a tottering economy, is in the midst of a controversy for hiring
helicopters for his moves within the State and its neighborhood. A proposal has
also been mooted to buy a helicopter for the Kerala State Tourism Development
Corporation. Its potential use is as much your guess as mine.
Suffice to say that this
article can be safely concluded by redefining government as a system that does not do anything it is
tasked, equipped, empowered and paid to do but does everything that it is not
supposed to do.
11 Apr 2019
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