KERALA FLOODS AND A DISASTER IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT

P M Ravindran, raviforjustice@gmail.com

Kerala has just witnessed one of the worst disasters in its history in the form of floods, that is,
apart from the even worse disaster in the form of a government. The flood had ravaged almost
50 percent of its geographical area, caused loss of about 450 lives and material loss to the tune
of a few billion rupees. It can easily be said that almost two thirds of the lives lost has been due
to the ineptitude of the people in government. In fact the allegations and counter allegations
have been as bad as, if not worse than, the flood itself.

Ever since the Right to Information Act was enacted, interventions using the law intended to
‘contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the
governed’ has helped one postulate that our governance is a system that does not do anything
it is tasked to do and does everything it is not expected to do. Here are two interventions on
disaster management spread over 6 years.

On 26/11/2012 there was a function in the Conference Hall of the Collectorate, Palakkad. On
02/12/2012 an application under the RTI Act was submitted to get some details like the nature
of the function, participation, cost incurred, nature of incidents that came under the
classification of disaster, the organization of teams, the nature and place of training, the
expected response time, the equipments allotted etc. The information provided was limited to
the function being a training program on the operation of the District Emergency Operation
Centre, the participants were the complete employees of the Collectorate (around 230 persons)
and 4 employees each from the taluks and the cost incurred was Rs 27,000/-. No information
was provided on the formation of teams, equipments and training institutions or planned
response time.

Cut to post flood. Another application under the RTI Act was filed on 30/08/2018, a good 3
weeks after the flood waters had receded from the affected areas in this district, Palakkad. The
information sought pertained to the water level in the various dams as on 8/8/18, the date
when the dams were opened for the first time, the height to which the shutters were opened
and the changes made subsequently, the authority who issued the orders, the date and time of
issuing warnings, the name and designations of public servants assigned the various tasks
during the rescue and relief operations and those deployed in the Disaster Management
Control Room and the temporary warehouse established in the Indoor Stadium near
Government Victoria College, the details of setting up and closing of relief camps, the aid
material distributed to the relief camps, the cost incurred during the rescue and relief
operations and the source of the funds.

The one point reply from the Public Information Officer stated that the information has not
been codified and would attract the provisons of Sec 7(9) of the RTI Act. But there was an offer
to visit their office between 2 and 4.30 pm on 19/9/18! Does it look great? May be to the
uninitiated in the ways of the public servants of this ‘fully literate‘ state. Instead of the one, two
or three relevant files they would dump 10 irrelevant files also and help you to waste your time
digging out the relevant files itself. Not to forget the cost of inspecting files! In any case the
public authority is admittedly guilty under Sec 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act which mandates every
public atuhority to ‘ maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the
form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are
appropriate to be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of
resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on different
systems so that access to such records is facilitated‘.

Incidentally it has been reported in the media that about 89,000 tons of food grains which the
Chief Minister of Kerala had sought as immediate aid from the Prime Minister and been
provided promptly is yet to be collected from the godowns of the state. And those responsible
cannot also be pardoned for creating an unwarranted controversy that these grains were not
aid but were to be charged for. And that was not the only controversy. They came with as much
ruthlessness as the flood waters themselves, whether it was requisitioning army help or a non
promised aid worth Rs 700 cr from an UAE Sheik! The reports about political interference in
relief and rehabilitation efforts would also put the dacoits of Chambal and the Pindaries to
shame!

It is also relevant to mention here that a naturopathist, Jacob Wadakkaancherry, had been
remanded by an additional sessions judge in Thiruvananthapuram on a complaint by the
Director of Health (at the instanc of the Health Minister of the State!) that his campaign against
use of the drug Doxycycline as a preventive medicine for rat fever was against the
government’s policy. And this when the highest court of the land is still ensuring that even
those accused of plotting against the Prime Minister of the country are only kept under house
arrest!

Currently there are many cases filed against the government for extortion also, right from the
employees of Malabar and Travancore Dewaswom Boards to the unions of government
employees who have objected to the government deducting their one month pay as
contribution to the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund without their consent! Meanwhile the
Chief Minister who has been away in the US of A since 01 Sep 2018 for treatment of an
undisclosed ailment, has set a new bench mark for irresponsibility by not even handing over his
responsibilities before leaving for so long to such a far off place. (Obviously, it shows how
insignificant his ailment is, doesn’t it?) And it has been reported that the Kerala Government
has not subscribed to Ayushman Bharath, the Prime Minister’s Arogya Yojana, touted as the
world’s biggest public health scheme being inaugurated on 21 September 2018. This no doubt
has deprived a major section of the population of the state from the health care benefits
offered under the scheme. Can there be a worse example of the anti people stance of a
democratically elected government?

21 Sep 2018