60,000 Volunteers Descend on Kerala's Kuttanad for First-of-Its-Kind Clean-Up, Ministers Join In
Alappuzha, August 28: It’s not often that one sees Kerala’s khadar-clad ministers rack up their mundus, roll up their sleeves and get down to some thorough scrubbing. But the flood-ravaged state has forced every resident, including political leaders, to hit the streets.
In one of the biggest cleaning missions following a natural calamity in India, more than 60,000 volunteers from all walks of life have descended on Kuttanad in Alappuzha district.
When Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was asked how he would tackle the massive challenge of rebuilding the state, he had said, “We will all simply get down to it. Homeowners can’t do it themselves, can they?”
When residents on Tuesday saw PWD minister G Sudhakaran cleaning soiled floors, they knew the state administration had delivered its promise. In fact, ministers from other states have also arrived in Kuttanad for the drive.
PWD minister Sudhakaran takes part in the operation. (News18)
Clean-up underway at Chakkulath Temple. (Aishwarya Kumar/News18.com)
A road near Chakkulath Temple after the clean-up. (Aishwarya Kumar/News18.com)
The army of volunteers, including ministers, electricians, plumbers, snake catchers, bureaucrats and others, will camp for the next three days in the town, the first area to be hit by the floods that have killed more than 300 people.
Although, volunteers have been working round the clock in places like Ernakulam to clean homes, the focus turned to South only when the Kuttanad clean-up campaign kicked off.
SUCI and PICCOS volunteers during the clean-up at Neeretapuram in Kuttanad on Tuesday. (Aishwarya Kumar/News18.com)
The operation is being controlled from SDV School in Alappuzha, where district officials are busy directing teams of volunteers. An action plan had been put in place on Monday evening when the administration had convened a meeting under collector S Suhas.
Sudhakaran, the tough talking, poetry writing and former lawyer, took the lead in directing the clean-up operations at the home of a farmer.
We asked him how it felt to get down to brass tacks. Pat came the reply, “Am I not an ordinary person? I am from this land. I know every field, every path in this place. I am not like some central ministers who talk about Kerala sitting in Delhi. If you are a minister, you have to get your hands dirty… help the people.”
At the finishing point of the Nehru Trophy Boat Race on Punnamada lake, a massive operation is also on simultaneously to send relief material to areas which are still inaccessible by road.
Hundreds of boats are being loaded under the supervision of Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac. Isaac told News18, “90 per cent of volunteers who had registered online for this campaign, have now reached Kuttanad. Most of them are students and young professionals. We are hoping to bring in more volunteers from across the state and outside.”
Tipper lorries, once seen as bane of Kerala roads, played a heroic role in rescue work last week as flood victims were bundled into these tall behemoths and rushed out of inundated areas.
Today, they have been pressed into service to ferry volunteers back to the same areas to do the cleaning work. The Kerala Fire Force is actively at work with their high pressure water jets to do the initial cleaning. Cleaning activities in each area is being supervised by panchayats secretaries or officials.
Once the cleaning teams are done with their work, engineering students roped in by the Kerala State Electricity Board visit the houses to check wiring and connections. Health department volunteers are on roving duty to identify areas which could pose epidemic hazards.
The district administration has arranged accommodation for these volunteers, many of them on houseboats which usually accommodate tourists. They are also being issued with preventive medicines, to ensure that small cuts and bruises don’t turn infectious.
The cleaning operation has been given an impetus by the August 30 deadline for relief camps to move out of schools which re-open the next day. The state government is hoping that it can send home at least 1.5 lakh of the 2 lakh camp residents in this timeframe. The challenge is huge, as people of 226 wards in 16 panchayats need to be rehabilitated. Many still don’t have road access.
The state government says that it will take at least two weeks to bring Kuttanad back to its feet. Therefore, the 3-day operation is just a tip of the iceberg. Finance Minister Isaac has revised the estimated investment needed to rebuild Kerala to at least Rs 1 lakh crore.
A sizable chunk of this (if the state is ever able to raise such a huge amount) will need to be earmarked for Kuttanad where the Haritha Keralam Mission for wetland revival is already pending. The challenge is no longer to revive agriculture, but to rebuild roads and buildings too.
Courtesy: www.news18.com
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HC to decide if gram panchayat members can continue in Manipur post tenure: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday said the high court would decide whether the elected gram panchayat members, whose five-year tenure was over in Manipur, were entitled to continue in their posts in the event of the appointment of an administrative committee or an administrator.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said it would like to have the benefit of the view of the high court in the matter and set a three-month time frame to adjudicate the legal question.
"The question that falls for consideration in this case is that whether the elected member of the Gram Panchayat whose five-year tenure is over was entitled to continue as members of the gram panchayat in the event of appointment of administrative committee or administrator, as contemplated under Section 22 of the Manipur Panchayati Raj Act of 1994," the bench noted.
The Manipur government’s counsel said the state could not hold panchayat elections due to the unprecedented violence.
"Since, we would like to have the advantage of the opinion of the high court, we dispose of the special leave petition without expressing any opinion on merits, with the request to the chief justice of Manipur High Court to post the main case before a division bench at the earliest. We further request the division bench, before whom the matter is listed, to provide expeditious hearing with an endeavour to resolve the controversy within three months," the bench said.
The bench noted that provision of Manipur Panchayati Raj Act was amended to substitute the word "cease" with the word "continue" with respect to the tenure of the elected members of the gram panchayat.
The petitioners have challenged a high court order and submitted that since elections in gram panchayat could not be held in Manipur for various reasons, the previously elected members of the panchayat were entitled to continue as per the amended Section 22 (3) of 1994 Act.
Section 22 deals with the power of deputy commissioner to appoint an administrative committee or an administrator for a period of six months, which will then oversee the election.
Section 22 (3) of the law says once the administrative committee or an administrator is appointed by the deputy commissioner, the elected members of earlier gram panchayat shall cease to exist.
The top court said what has been challenged before it was an interlocutory order of the high court and the main petition in which the question of law that had been raised was still pending.
The original petitioners before the high court were elected representatives at the fifth general elections for gram panchayats and the zilla parishads who sought a direction to continue in the office beyond the period of five years as stipulated by law as elections were last held in 2017.
They sought to continue as panchayat members till the time the state election commission notified the election for the sixth general elections for gram panchayats and zilla parishads.
On February 29, last year, the high court in its interim order gave liberty to Manipur government to appoint an administrative committee for each gram panchayat and zilla parishad in accordance with law and the provision of the Act.
