Plight of Wayanad landslide victims to be focal election issue as bypoll looms

Thiruvananthapuram: The plight of the survivors of the devastating landslide will be a key issue in the Lok Sabha by-poll campaign at Wayanad where Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi is making her electoral debut.

Even nearly three months after the July 30 landslide, the Centre is yet to announce financial assistance for the relief and rehabilitation of the landslide survivors. Though the Kerala government is initiating steps like identifying land for constructing houses, the survivors are concerned over legal issues involved. Decision on writing off the bank loans of the landslide survivors is also still pending.

An action council has been formed by the landslide hit people on Sunday to effectively take up their plights.

Action council leader P K Anilkumar said that there was serious apprehension among the landslide survivors over the rehabilitation getting delayed. Though the state government identified two plantations for setting up townships, taking over the land involved legal hurdles. The state government so far announced assistance only for six months. Hence the delay in proper rehabilitation is a serious concern.

Many of the families are desperately in need of house as they are now staying in congested alternate arrangements made by the government.

"At least 400 families are in urgent need of houses. Many families are staying in pitiable conditions now,' said Chooralmala ward member C K Noorudeen.

He also urged that the government should ensure the quality of houses being built. "Many houses provided for the victims of the Puthumala landslide in 2019 have already developed water seepage from the roof," said Noorudeen, who himself is a survivor of the Puthumala landslide.

Even as the Kerala government initiated a meeting with the State Level Bankers Committee and urged banks to write off loans, a decision of banks was yet to come. The total loan dues of landslide hit people amounted to Rs. 35.3 crore. Kerala Bank (state cooperative bank), only announced that it would waive the loan dues.

State Level Bankers Committee state convenor Pradeep K S told DH that a decision on the matter was pending with the governing bodies of the respective banks. Moreover, only few loanees have so far formally requested for loan waiver. Hence SLBC is also organizing awareness camps among the survivors, he said.

Though there is concern among the survivors that the declaration of elections might further delay decisions on their relief and rehabilitation, government sources said that disaster relief activities would not be affected by elections.