A member of the Indian national Congress has made some highly serious accusations against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of corruption and intentional negligence in the horrific 2018 Kerala floods.
According to MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan, the government deliberately took long before opening the shutters at the Thottapilly spillway, which exacerbated the effects of floods in Kuttanad, the rice bowl of the state. In a press conference, he published an audio tape purportedly of a former state electricity minister, K Krishnankutty, whereby he claimed that corruption and contact with a sand mining contractor were the cause of the delay.
Kuzhalnadan recounts that though an executive engineer had advised the opening of the spillway as the water fell in greater amounts, the move was delayed to conserve the sand resources which were reportedly rented to a private company. He claimed that this action caused serious flooding, loss of paddy fields, and displacement of thousands of people in Kuttanad area.
But Krishnankutty has refuted the allegations and said that the voice in the recording is not his but may be man-made. He ruled out the allegations as being politically driven, more so with the coming elections.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, too denied the allegations saying that the issue had been discussed by expert committees and there was no wrongdoing. He described the allegations as old things re-emerging to gain political advantage, fuelling up the battle of words between the ruling LDF and the opposition Congress in the run-up to the polls.