Plea in SC over proper execution of flood relief

A public interest writ petition was filed in the Supreme court on Tuesday for a courtmonitored flood relief operations in Kerala with the Central and state assistance for purchase of medicine and food items, rebuilding devastated homes, cleaning up the houses, repairing roads and building infrastructure.

In his PIL, petitioner Siji Antony said this court might kindly oversee the proper implementation of the rehabilitation scheme. Further, the response of the various authorities to the natural calamity when it struck, be judicially examined so as to assess the lapses and to make it swifter for future. He wanted the National Disaster Management Plan to be updated with the lessons learnt from the Kerala experience.

At the outset, the petitioner submitted that this is not an adversarial litigation, but for judicial review of the administrative measures undertaken by the authorities in the aftermath of the recent natural disaster in Kerala, which has resulted in 361 deaths and displacement of 7.24 lakh in relief camps. He said this was necessary for the state of Kerala as well as for more effective implementation of the rescue and rehabilitation measures anywhere in the nation, in case of any future natural disaster.

It submitted that early warnings and timely response would have reduced the casualties in Kerala. Had the National Disaster management Plan been properly implemented, the magnitude and the after effect of the natural disaster in Kerala would have been lesser. Only a judicial examination of all what is done by Kerala and the Union of India would enable better response mechanism.