The Kerala High Court has directed the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) and the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA) to bring before the court the list of grievances of landslide survivors in Wayanad which had not been redressed within two weeks from the receipt of such grievances.
A division bench comprising Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syam Kumar VM, while considering a suo motu case relating to the prevention and management of natural disasters, directed on Friday that if the district-level grievances cell does not redress grievances within two weeks, regardless of the reasons for the delay, the KSDMA and KeLSA must prepare and submit a list of such unredressed grievances to the court. This will enable the court to take appropriate measures in such matters, the court said.
“In order to ensure that grievance cells are operating efficiently, we direct that if a grievance by a citizen is not redressed at the district level by the grievance cells already put in place, then irrespective of the reasons for the delay in redressing the grievance, the 7th respondent (Office of the Kerala Disaster Management Authority) as also the KeLSA shall prepare a list of grievances not redressed within the aforesaid period of two weeks and submit the same before this court so that we can understand the reasons why the grievances have not been redressed and take appropriate measures thereof,” the court said.
In accordance with the orders of the court, the state government and KeLSA had set up grievance cells to address the issues faced by survivors of the landslides in Wayanad.
The court has taken note of the psychological support provided to the victims who lost their families and homes. The court said that long-term psychological support has to be offered to the affected children.
The KSDMA submitted before the court that counselling sessions are given to the affected children through schools. It was informed that experts from the NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences) and UNICEF are also helping the KSDMA to offer psychological support to these affected children.