KOCHI: The High Court hit back at the Central Government for acting inappropriately in connection with the Wayanad disaster and the State Government for unscientific division of local wards in the Malabar region.

Centre has been severely criticized for asking for the amount of the previous rescue operations when the relief projects in Wayanad, where the landslide disaster happened, have not reached anywhere.

The High Court cancelled the increase in the number of wards in eight municipalities and one panchayat in the Malabar region two months ago.

A division bench comprising Justice Dr A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Easwaran S verbally asked what kind of attitude it is to talk about old accounts right when a disaster strikes. The central government has given the state a bill of Rs 132.61 crore for the use of helicopters for rescue missions. 13 crore was spent for Wayanad. The remaining amount is due from 2006 to May 2021. The court directed the Centre to respond on issues including granting relaxations in disaster management rules to spend money on relief projects. Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup informed that a letter will be sent to the Union Home Ministry for this. A copy was also produced. The court directed to send the letter yesterday itself.

The Advocate General informed that the Centre has been given an account of the expenditure and the remaining amount from the State Disaster Response Fund. The petition will be heard on the 10th of next month.

61.03 crore remaining in state fund

There is Rs 700.5 crore in the SDRF as of December 10, but after allocation for projects, the balance is Rs 61.03 crore. 120 crore rupees can be utilized if the arrears of the bill issued by the Centre are extended till May 2021. The government has also informed that the total cost of rehabilitation will be Rs 181.03 crore including that.

Current delimitation may also reach court

Justice CP Muhammad Niaz canceled the ward delimitation of Pannoor, Mattannur, Mukkam, Payyoli, Farook, Koduvally, Sreekandapuram and Pattambi Municipalities and Padne Panchayat. The action was taken on petitions filed by UDF activists stating that the delimitation was unscientific. There is also a widespread complaint regarding the ongoing delimitation of wards. Most of the complaints that came before the Delimitation Commission were that they were delimitated and joined for votes. Once the partition is complete, it can also be challenged in court.

Ward division was done across the state in 2015 based on the 2011 census. The court pointed out that the reassessment based on the same census was a violation of Section 6(2) of the Municipal and Panchayatiraj Act.

The recent legislative amendments will not apply to these local bodies. The notification issued on September 10 and the guidelines of the Delimitation Commission dated September 24 were revoked. The petitioners also questioned the fact that the reassessment was conducted when the new census was to be conducted next year. The government argued that these municipalities came into existence in 2015.