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Centre urged to declare Kerala drought-hit

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG 7. A delegation of Left party MPs from Kerala today asked the Centre to send a team to Kerala to assess the drought situation in the State and provide assistance accordingly.

Led by the CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP, S. Ramachandran Pillai, the delegation which met the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, said the ruling Congress-led Front in Kerala had not yet brought the situation to the notice of the Centre, though the State was suffering from drought. He said the delegation had not quantified the amount required for drought relief saying it was for the Centre to evaluate.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the MPs said that up to July 31 this year, Kerala had received only 39 per cent of the rainfall and in Thiruvananthapuram district alone it was 65 per cent less than that of last year. As a result, Kerala's dams had only 40 per cent water compared to that of last year and this has also added to power crisis since the State is depended on hydel power. The delegation said it was surprised to note that while the neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were included in the list of the drought-affected States and financial help by the Centre was being given, Kerala was left out.

Mr. Pillai said later that the Prime Minister assured the delegation that its request would be considered. The delegation had sought Mr. Vajpayee's personal intervention and immediate financial aid to overcome the havoc caused by drought.

The delegation included V.V. Raghavan, J. Chittaranjan (CPI), A.K. Premajam, Suresh Kurup, Varkala Radhakrishnan (CPI-M), K. Francis George (Kerala Congress), G.M. Banatwala, M.P., Abdussamad Sambadani (IUML) and N.K. Premachandran (RSP).

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