Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 15 (IANS): A day after the Kerala government was informed that landslides and flash floods that happened in Wayanad in July this year cannot be declared a "national disaster", both the ruling CPI-M-led Left and the Congress-led UDF on Friday slammed the Centre's decision and called for a shutdown on Tuesday.
The Congress-led UDF and the CPI-M-led Left announced that to protest this "negative attitude" towards Kerala and Wayanad, the entire Wayanad district on Tuesday will observe a total shutdown.
On the other hand, state BJP President K.Surendran slammed the Kerala government for their laxity in failing to even call an all-party government to discuss this and pointed out that it was the UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2013 removed the word "national disaster".
State Revenue Minister K. Rajan said that what the Centre is doing towards Kerala is rather unfortunate and it’s surprising that there is a concerted attempt to sideline the state.
However, Union Minister of State for Fisheries George Kurian said the Centre follows rules and procedures and there is nothing against any state at all.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said that under the existing guidelines of the SDRF/NDRF, there is no provision to declare any calamity as a 'National Disaster' after the Pinarayi Vijayan-led State government demanded the landslide tragedy be declared a national disaster.
The Centre, meanwhile, pointed out that an amount of Rs 388 crore has been allocated to the state government for the financial year 2024-25 in SDRF. Out of the total amount, the Centre's share totaling Rs 291.20 crore was released in advance in two installments. Moreover, the Accountant General, Kerala has reported a balance of Rs 394.99 crore in its SDRF account as on April 1, 2024. Incidentally, the same statistics were cited by the counsel for the Centre at the Kerala High Court on Friday and he also pointed out that for certain, the Centre will take the final decision of sanctioning funds to Kerala before the end of this month.
Kerala has sought a Rs 2,000-crore relief package from the Centre for Wayanad