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Pinarayi Vijayan’s flood response not factual, says VD Satheesan

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Satheesan said that the government had not conducted any studies.

Kochi: V. D. Satheesan MLA said on Friday that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s response to the High Court appointed amicus curiae’s rep-ort on August floods was baseless and contrary to facts. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said that the government had not conducted any studies.

“If a proper study has been done, the ministers and officers would have to be prosecuted for criminal negligence and unintentional homicide,” he remarked.

“The government’s cla-im that flood occurred due to heavy rain is baseless. The Nethravathi River in Karnataka which received three times more than the amount of rainfall happened in Kerala didn’t have such a disaster. Even those rivers with no dam were flooded since all rivers in Kerala are inter-connected.”

Mr Satheesan said that the IIT report, which the government relies on, is incomplete and personal prepared by a professor.

“However, the report of Gandhinagar IIT states about poor dam management as the reason for disaster. The amicus curiae report is based on the petition filed by E. Sreedharan, ahighly respected and trusted person in Kerala society,” he added.

“On July 17, the state received the second highest amount of rainfall in its history when all the dams reached their maximum capacity. There was IMD forecast for heavy rain after August 10, and already full dams should have released water to contain heavy flow expected in a controlled manner. It’s here that the government followed criminal negligence.

“All of them had to be opened suddenly on August 15 not following the Standard Operative Procedure (SOP) since they were unable to contain any more water.

“The Central Water Commission which is responsible for issuing warnings on floods failed to do so. Hence, the CEC is also responsible for the disaster.

“The Opposition sticks to its stand that the flood is human-made and the government should conduct a judicial probe," he said

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