Kamal Ghorui
T’puram: Nearly two years after the Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslides devastated parts of Wayanad, records accessed under the RTI Act show that the Kerala govt has directly spent only Rs 102.6 crore from its own funds for relief and rehabilitation, reports KP Saikiran.According to the disaster management department’s response, this entire amount was drawn from the state disaster response fund. With estimates indicating that rebuilding Wayanad would require several thousand crores, criticism has already emerged that the state’s direct financial commitment remains disproportionately low compared to the scale of the disaster.The Kerala govt has maintained it fully availed the Rs 529.5 crore interest-free loan the Centre had sanctioned for Wayanad’s rehabilitation. However, there is still no publicly available breakdown of how this amount has been utilised. Documents from the revenue department further show that donors from across the world had contributed nearly Rs 774 crore to the CM’s distress relief fund.Of this, Rs 167 crore has been allocated to the Wayanad district collector. A significant portion of this allocation has gone towards land acquisition for a rehabilitation township.Despite the allocations, there has been no meaningful progress in terms of the liveability of the houses, with basic infrastructure such as power and water connections still not in place. Apart from the symbolic handover of keys for a few houses ahead of polls, the township project remains incomplete. Despite substantial donations and central assistance, many of those affected have yet to return to stable living conditions.
