Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has expressed apprehension over the Opposition charge that the 2018 floods in the State was man-made. The Congress had blamed the Left Democratic Front government for the floods based on a study report submitted by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
The 148-page report submitted to the Accountant General of the Interdisciplinary Center for Water Research at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, states that the floods exacerbated due to non-compliance and lack of precautionary measures despite the dams having adequate flood-control measures.
Congress leader Oommen Chandy had blamed the government for the floods, which affected several lakh people in the State. He promised to take action against the responsible if the United Democratic Front (UDF) came to power.
However, Mr. Vijayan said study reports by the Central Water Commission and an independent study by the Civil Engineering department of the IIT Madras had attributed the floods to the unprecedented heavy rainfall. The reports had said that the intensity of the floods could be reduced marginally due to effective dam management, he said.
Mr. Vijayan further said that the study done by the IIT Madras was published in the internationally acclaimed scientific journal Current Science after proper verification. However, without discussing and properly studying the report, the Opposition raising these issues now could only be looked at with suspicion, he said.
