Shri Ramesh Chennithala, Opposition Leader and Chairman, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies,
Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament,
Shri Mullappally Ramachandran, Member of Parliament and President, KPCC,
Shri Kanam Rajendran, State Secretary, Communist Party of India,
Shri Michal Vetha Siromani IAS, Former Addl. Chief Secretary, Govt. of Kerala,
Dr. Varghese Kurian, Chairman, VKL Group,
Shri B.S. Shiju, Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies,
Smt. Niyathi, Registrar, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies,
Madhyama Suhruthukkale,
Sahodaree Sahodaranmare,
Ellavarkkum Ente Namaskaram.
I am very happy to inaugurate the Conclave on Rebuilding Kerala: The Way Forward, organized by Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies.
Let me at the outset, compliment Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studiesfor the efforts it has taken to organize this programme, which is a laudable attempt to invite the attention of our society towards the need to accelerate the process of rebuilding Kerala after the flood. The noble motive behind the conduct of this event indicates this Institute's desire to contribute ideas that would help our beloved State to regain the prosperity that the recent floods had snatched away.
I am informed that ever since its inception in 2005, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studieshas been supporting the Central and State governments through training and social science research, especially on policy pertaining to decentralized governance.
I recall that this is the third conclave on rebuilding Kerala that I have attended during the last three months. Two conclaves were organized by leading media groups. In both the conclaves, I had mentioned about my pride in having served as the Governor of the State of Kerala, which is one of the most advanced societies in India. To me, Kerala was always a land blessed by Nature with the best climate, beautiful greenery and enviable progress.
But, in the last year, we had seen the cyclone Ockhi venting its anger on our poor fisher-folk. Barely some months after the devastating cyclone, we saw our people in nearly all districts, suffer the ravages of the worst floods in the century – a disaster that brought hundreds of people from prosperity to poverty in a matter of days.
However, I am proud to say that the strong will of our people prevailed in the midst of this tragedy and our response to the flood turned out to be a model for the whole country. Our people did not need a call to unite; instead, they united on their own. The relief camps were flooded with food and clothes and we experienced the true sparkle of Onam in the love we offered to our brethren in distress. The youth whom we thought were engrossed in their mobile phones, unmindful of the world around them, surprised us with their active role in rescue and relief. Above all, the timely intervention of our fishing community in rescue operations strengthened the morale of our people.
The Government of India also was quick to react to the situation by launching a massive rescue and relief operation with 40 helicopters, 31 aircraft, 182 teams for rescue, 18 Defence Forces medical teams, 58 teams of National Disaster Response Force, seven companies of Central Armed Police Force, Navy and Coast Guard ships and over 500 boats with necessary rescue equipment. Most of you are aware that I had met the Honorable Prime Minister on 25th August to apprise him about the damages. At that time, he had clarified to me that the Rs.600 crore released by the Centre in addition to the Rs.562.45 crore already made available in the State Disaster Response Fund of Kerala, was only the advance aid. And, very recently, more funds of around Rs.3048 crore had also been released.
The magnitude of the calamity has now emerged, with the United Nations Post Disaster Need Assessment report stating that Kerala needs Rs.31000 crores for the rebuilding initiatives.Certainly, this is a huge amount for a small State like Kerala.
I understand that according to the Post Disaster Need Assessment [PDNA[ report, we would need more than Rupees Ten Thousand crore to reconstruct our roads and transportation infrastructure. Housing would require Rs.5443 crore and another nearly Rupees Five Thousand crore to breathe life into agriculture and allied areas. I am not going to all the details, but I must stress the need to begin the rebuilding process from agriculture, since our primary responsibility must be to bring back the lost glory by making ours a truly green State.
Even otherwise, agriculture in Kerala needs a strong push. While when our State's economy grew at the rate of 7.4 percent, the contribution of Agriculture to Kerala's Gross Domestic Product was only 11.3 per cent. This calls for enhancing our investment in agriculture, strengthening our agricultural research and increasing facilities for agro-based entrepreneurship.
It may sound simple, but effective waste management is one area we should focus on so that we could control many health issues in society. We cannot ignore the fact that solutions to many health issues lie in effective waste management.
You would also recall that the floods were seen as a man-made tragedy caused partly by a wrong style of development and utter neglect of the environment. We urgently need to adhere to an eco-sensitive approach to land use and planning. We also need to rethink our building technology. We need not go into a fault-finding exercise on the opening of our dam reservoirs, but we can certainly give priority to ensuring simplicity and clarity in our warnings about weather. I am happy that the report of Rajiv Gandhi institute of Development Studies also mentions the need for accurate and clearer weather warnings.
Our concern today is on what should be the way forward in Rebuilding Kerala. Should we just replace what we lost due to the floods or should we conceive and create a more developed, more modernized Kerala? So far, the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund has received Rs.3000 crores from all over the world. But, what we have spent so far in rebuilding is less than Rs.1200 crore. Therefore, my answer would be to help the government to speed up action on a war footing. The idea of a master plan is certainly impressive. However, let us speed up the work on the short term goals and finalize the long term project as soon as possible.
I must also caution against the trend to politicize the Rebuilding exercise. We cannot allow narrow politics to affect our priorities in the process of rebuilding. What we need is a sincere political unity in fixing the areas that deserve priority.
We also need to convince the people of the State about how the amounts are being spent. For instance, it was announced yesterday that Rs.90 crore was allotted for repair of houses. It is a positive step. Since we have the technology to convey information to people as and when a decision is made, we should ensure transparency in our dealings by making all receipts and expenses known to people. Now, there is a website for this in English. I hope soon there would also be a Malayalam version of the site with the district wise list of donors and beneficiaries. Such transparency would also be helpful in boosting the image of the government and in attracting more voluntary contributions from people.
To conclude, floods have affected us economically, socially, environmentally, culturally, politically and even psychologically. Therefore, united action is a must for rebuilding our State.
I consider this Conclave as an effort to put forward valuable suggestions on the implementation of the rebuilding plans.
I sincerely hope that the suggestions arising out of this Conclave will be helpful in the process of rebuilding Kerala.
I congratulate Dr. Varghese Kurian for being honoured with the Socially Responsible Entrepreneur Award. I also compliment the organizers for conducting this function in a befitting manner.
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Ellavarkkum Ente Aashamsakal
Nanni / Jai Hind
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