Congress on Tuesday questioned Kerala’s ruling Left government over the ‘inflated’ relief fund projection for Wayanad landslides. The opposition party asked the state goverment to investigate whether or not it was appropriate to present purportedly inflated data in order to get more funding from the Centre for disaster relief efforts in Wayanad district.
Ramesh Chennithala, a senior Congress leader and former state assembly leader of opposition, asked the Left government to reveal the whole truth, including what was mentioned in its affidavit to the Kerala High Court about the Wayanad relief operations. This comes after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan denied the allegations made by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and BJP of corruption over funds for relief efforts.
CM Vijayan also referred to the media reports that said a huge sum was spent on relief efforts as ‘baseless’. According to the CM, the state government had shared a memorandum with the union government requesting immediate help for the calamity.
He had claimed that the media was reporting this memorandum in a false manner. Additionally, he had asserted that it was an attempt to undermine the state administration’s attempts to get support from the central government.
Congress’s Chennithala further said that the recent charges are raising concerns among the public because everyone was aware of the alleged irregularities in connection with the disaster relief funding in 2019. “We need to exert pressure together to get more funds from the Centre,” he added.
(With PTI inputs)