Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala should seriously consider elevated rail as a primary mode of transport, finance minister T M Thomas Issac has suggested. At the concluding session of a workshop on ‘Building a Climate Resilient Kerala’, he said one needs to think of alternatives since a good percentage of Keralites can afford cars. The sector which contributes most to pollution in Kerala is transport, unlike other Indian states where the non-renewable power sources contribute the most.
It is in this context that the minister was talking about elevated rail. A Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO, Thanal, with Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) had organised the workshop to deliberate over the State Action Plan on Climate Change. The existing action plan submitted to the central government some time ago is being revised, to weed out its lacunae.
One of its shortcomings is that it does not address the fact that women and children are on the frontline of disasters. Lars Brend from UNICEF had earlier shared a research finding, according to which, the IQ of a child under six years drops by 10% if they do not get nutritious meals for 15 days.
