Kerala CM not taking criticism seriously: VD Satheesan

Kochi (Kerala) [India], October 22 (ANI): Leader of Opposition (LoP) VD Satheesan slammed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and said that he is not ready to take criticism from Opposition on the flood-landslide situation in the state seriously.
He also called Communist Party of India (Marxist) party state president A Vijayaraghavan a "clown in the court of Kerala CM".
Lashing at Vijayan, the Leader of Opposition said, "Communist Party of India (Marxist) party president A Vijayaraghavan is acting like a clown in the court of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. His sycophancy is too much."
"That is why I said that our Chief Minister is unfortunately among the sycophants. So, he is not taking the criticisms seriously," he added.
"The Chief Minister have to take every criticism very seriously. If there is nothing in my allegation, he can reply to that. But he is not ready to accept the allegation. We are bringing up this matter to correct the government's line of thinking and way of doing things," he further added.
Satheesan said that he does not want to politicise a natural calamity, but added that it has been four consecutive years that the floods are creating such havoc in Kerala.
"No mitigation has been planned so far. There is no monitoring system. They have not improved the warning system," he lashed out at the state government while saying the Disaster Management Authority has also not changed a bit since 2018.
"The international national agencies and even the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted extreme rain in the high-range area, but unfortunately, the Disaster Management Authority and their Meteorological wing never analysed the predictions of the national agencies," he said.
Satheesan also alleged that no rescue operations were undertaken until the next morning.
"Only after 22 hours, the rescue operations were started. I brought this matter to the notice of the Chief Minister and to the notice of the Government. That is our duty," he said.
As of Wednesday, 42 people have died due to rains and landslides between October 12 and 20, while six people are missing, said Vijayan.
The Chief Minister also said that as many as 304 relief centres have been opened in the state, while 11 NDRF teams were also deployed for rescue operations. Financial assistance to the affected people will be given shortly, he confirmed. (ANI)