Has the 'Rebuild Kerala Initiative morphed into a white elephant of sorts? This was the question that animated the Assembly on Tuesday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the Rebuild Kerala Initiative is not just a post-flood rescue and rehabilitation project but an agency to create a long-term blueprint for a new and sustainable Kerala.

The opposition, on the other hand, said the RKI was moving at a pace slower than a snail and has not managed to satisfy even the short-term needs of the flood affected, leave alone long-term objectives. "If you plan to have a logo for the RKI, the snail would be ideal," said V D Satheesan who raised the issue in the Assembly.

The opposition members then staged a walkout when Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan refused to take up the matter for discussion adjourning the House.

Preliminary failure

Congress MLA V D Sathesan, who sought leave to move an adjournment motion on the issue, said the state government had not even fully provided the preliminary assistance of Rs 10,000. "At least 20 per cent of the affected families are yet to receive the amount," Satheesan said. The money was supposed to be given the moment the flood-affected returned to their houses from relief centres. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, when his turn to speak came, said Satheesan was using his way with words to give an inflated picture of a problem.

The Congress leader was especially critical of the government's constant reworking of the list of damaged houses. There were two lists, he said. "The first was prepared by the local bodies for which even schoolchildren were used. Later, the officials of the revenue department prepared another list," Satheesan said. "Many of the houses in the first list did not find a place in the second," he added.

Satheesan said many families had even demolished their fully-damaged houses once it was included in the first list. "When the second list came, these houses were not included. What are these people supposed to do now," he asked.

Damaged housing ploy

Satheesan's charge was that the government had given specific instructions to officials to keep the number of fully damaged houses to the lowest possible limit. "So even a house that had a damage of 74 per cent was not considered fully damaged and therefore not eligible to get the Rs 4 lakh the government had promised for fully damaged houses," Satheesan said. (A house is considered fully damaged only if there is a 75 per cent damage.)

Satheesan said the government had first said that there were 17,500 fully-damaged houses. Later, the number shrunk to 10,000. "At least you agreed that there are 10,000 fully-damaged houses," he said, sarcasm dripping from his words. "But have you been able to rebuild even 1500 of these homes," he asked. The chief minister did not give the state's version in his reply.

In search of shelter

The Congress leader, who is also the MLA of one of the affected regions (Piravom), said there were flood-affected families who have nowhere to go. "Some 24 poor families are now living on a rock in Mayiladumkunnu," Satheesan said. "Perhaps this government would be the only one in the world that had failed to provide interim shelter for the dispossessed," he said.

To this, the chief minister offered a confusing reply. "The question of interim shelter did not arise because the rebuilding initiative began right after the rescue." Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala promptly got up to remind the chief minister of an earlier promise. "You had said the government would rent places like marriage halls to accommodate those who had lost their homes in the floods," Chennithala said. "It is true that I said so. But we found that there were not many people to lodge in such places," Pinarayi Vijayan said.

Appeals in dustbin

Satheesan's other big grouse was the failure of collectorates to accept appeals of the flood-affected. The government had said the deadline had been pushed to March 31 from November 30 last year. Satheesan alleged that not a single collectorate had accepted appeals after November 30.

"Now we have realised that when the CM says that he had disposed of appeals he actually meant that the appeals were thrown into the dustbin," Satheesan said. He wanted the deadline to accept appeals pushed to July 31. The chief minister was silent on this.

Satheesan also wanted to know if the Rebuild Kerala Initiative had a Disaster Mitigation Plan in place. "It is now 10 months since the floods had wreaked havoc. We also know that Kerala is placed in the danger zone. But have we done anything to prevent such a disaster in future," he said. The chief minister, yet again, preferred to skip the poser.

Opposition's failings

Instead, Pinarayi Vijayan's argument was that the opposition had wilfully attempted to scuttle the resource mobilisation drive of the state government. He referred to the Salary Challenge controversy that the opposition had vehemently opposed. "Why did you take such a dismissive stand," Pinarayi asked. "People had willingly contributed but it were the CPM's high-handedness that enraged us," Chennithala said in response.

The chief minister also said the opposition had not uttered a word against the Centre when it closed all the state's attempts to mobilise money from foreign sources.

Gulf money

At this point, Satheesan asked the chief minister how much he had managed to get from his trip to the Gulf. "Then you had claimed that Rs 300 crore was promised," Satheesan said. At first, Pinarayi Vijayan said the money was still pouring in. "Non-resident Keralites are even now contributing to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund. We don't have a combined figure," he said. Then, at a later point during his reply, he said Rs 54 crore had till now come from Gulf.

Where are the KPCC homes?

The chief minister, too, had a poser. "Where are the 1000 houses that the KPCC had promised to construct," he asked. Chennithala said 300 houses were being constructed at the moment. "Satheesan alone is organising the construction of 200 houses. Hibi Eden is making 100. Anvar Sadath and Roshi Augustine too are making houses," Chennithala said. "We don't have the kind of crores that you have at your command. But we will still construct the houses," he said.