CPI leader Binoy Viswam slams Kerala government’s response to rain disaster
State secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI) Binoy Viswam has raised the question whether there is even a government in Kerala, because the people
State secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI) Binoy Viswam has raised the question whether there is even a government in Kerala, because the people are yet to see one in action. Speaking to reporters here on Saturday (August 8, 2026), after visiting the families of the fishermen who were missing at sea at Kollam and Vizhinjam, he said that if there was a government in the State, it was nowhere to be seen. He said that people who had lost their loved ones at sea and those who bore the brunt of rain calamities were all waiting for the government to make its presence felt, hoping for help and support from the government.
“We all want a government that acts. It is shameful to even claim that there is a government here because it is not doing anything to ease the suffering of people,” Mr. Viswam said In the coastal areas of the State, people were clamouring for a response from the government. But neither the Fisheries Minister nor the Fisheries officials were there to help them. Viswam alleged that thousands who were affected in the rain were staying in relief camps but that many camps did not have electricity or water.
The government had not even declared free rations to people, something that should have been done much earlier. The State’s disaster management system was also only on paper and was a total failure because it had not been able to issue sufficient warnings to people, he alleged. “All that the Chief Minister has done is make a call to the daughter of John, who went missing at sea. The Chief Minister and the Ministers should be visiting these families in distress, instead their priorities seem to be different,” Mr. Viswam said.
He added that the government had no answers to the pertinent questions raised by John’s daughter regarding the State’s systems for early warnings or its preparedness for launching emergency rescue measures at sea. It was high time the government machinery came alive and responded to people pro-actively, consoled families and offered them compensation and rehabilitation measures, Mr. Viswam said.
The BriefWire