KERALA FLOODS-THE INDICTMENT

P M Ravindran, raviforjustice@gmail.com

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