Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan slammed the government for failing to mitigate the flooding in Thiruvananthapuram city on Sunday.
Speaking to journalists after touring the flood-hit localities and interacting with displaced residents, Mr Satheesan said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s visit to the Netherlands to learn and replicate the vaunted Dutch model of flood mitigation had yielded no tangible benefit for tax-payers.
He said the populace suffered from protracted power outages and flooded homes and vehicles. Failure to clear storm drains, de-silt canals, and build climate change-resilient urban infrastructure aggravated the fallout of the catastrophic flood.
Mr Satheesan said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s flagship K-Rail would further aggravate the flood situation in Kerala. He said the project entailed a 300-km elevated embankment to embed transit lines. It would impede natural drainage and subsume wetlands and paddies across the State. Moreover, it formed an artificial barrier whose environmental impact was not accurately quantified.
