Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the worst natural calamity experienced by the state in a century points to the importance of environment conservation and need for a proper development perspective.
He said there were lessons to be learned about conservation and environment friendly development approach. The second phase involved a greater responsibility of restoring normal life and reconstruction of infrastructure facilities including roads and bridges, the chief minister said in an article released to the media.
Pinarayi said the humongous calamity ha-nded out political lessons on fighting a natural calamity as one people. “Moreover we rece-ived practical experience about disaster ma-nagement in a big sca-le,” he said. The rescue operations carried out by the fishermen were unprecedented in the state. The religious plac-es opened their doors for relief camps to accommodate people irrespective of caste, community and religious identity.
He said the biggest challenge before the government was the reconstruction activities to be undertaken in the flood ravaged districts. There are more than seven lakh people in relief camps at the moment and the government was hopeful of carrying out rehabilitation activities with the same zeal and responsibility which was seen during rescue operations.
The chief minister said the officials would ensure that the people who return home from the relief camps do not face any difficulty. “We need to assure them that the government and people were with them in the hour of tragedy,” he said.
Pinarayi said the youth of the state should take up the task of stu-dying the massive rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities carried out as part of disaster management for academic purpose.
During the period of devastating floods, certain wrong tendencies were also witnessed. Rumours and fake messages were spread about dams going to burst and state set to face food shortage. Some people misused the social med-ia to unleash false propaganda against relief and rescue operations. However, people of the state rejected such propaganda with the contempt it deserved and they moved on with their relief work.
