As the situation in Kerala crawls back to normalcy, personnel from the Indian Army and the Navy and fishermen folk have emerged as the biggest heroes for saving many lives and working tirelessly during the relief operations. With the worst over, the bigger task that Kerala has at hand is rehabilitating lakhs of people displaced by the floods and managing the donations and relief material that have begun to pour in from across the country and the world.
Authorities concerned today face a daunting task to store and properly channelise these relief materials. And it is here that two lady district collectors have stepped up and showed the way through their exemplary actions. The two officers — TV Anupama and K Vasuki — have exemplified that the will and determination to get a task done can surmount even the worst of challenges.
Take district collector in-charge of Thrissur TV Anupama’s case in her district as an example. Anupama, through sheer knowhow of law, just taught the district bar council a legal lesson after the advocates refused to allow relief material to be stored in their office. Acting as per provisions laid down under the NDRF ACT 2005, sections 34-H/J/M, Anupama ordered doors of the bar council office be broken and ensured that the relief material gets stocked there. Notably, even religious places had opened their dorrs in this time of travesty to provide relief and shelter.
The move by Anupama not only ensured that the relief material is stocked safely in the deluge-hit state, but also left advocates bewildered as they did not have knowledge about this legal intricacy. Apart from this, Anupama, the fourth-rank holder in the civil services examination in 2010, also interacted with people and learnt their grievances.
District collector of Thiruvananthapuram K Vasuki is another such administrator who has ensured that relief works did not get hampered. She has maintained close vigil as the district administration was able to collect 54 truck-loads of material in two days, sending it to parts of the district and beyond.
“Do you know what you are doing? You are making history. You are showing the world what Malayalis are capable of. The logistics and the amount of relief material being collected is not just making national news, but international news. Just like people fought for freedom, all of you have fought like the army. It’s an amazing job that you have done. Around 400 volunteers signed up for loading and unloading at the airport. The labour cost for the government, if we were to calculate, would run into crores,” she said, to a round of applause by people involved in relief works.
As relief and rehabilitation work is on in flood-ravaged Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged all Malayalis to donate one month’s salary to rebuild the state, where the death toll has now touched 302 and over four lakh people are still in relief camps.