Wayanad disaster: Kerala CM warns of legal action against media for ‘spreading lies’ about relief expenditure

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan warns media of legal action for falsely portraying government's Wayanad disaster expenses, undermining relief efforts.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has warned of legal action against a section of the media for “maliciously” portraying the government’s preparatory estimate of the probable outlay of the protracted search and rescue operations in landslides-hit Wayanad in the initial days of the disaster in July as the actual expense incurred by the State. 

At a press conference on Saturday (September 21, 2024), Mr. Vijayan said the “right-wing” media’s “felonious misinterpretation” of the rough calculation, submitted as a memorandum in the Kerala High Court in response to a suo motu petition, was tantamount to interference with administrative justice and entailed significant legal jeopardy.

Mr. Vijayan scathingly condemned the “anti-Left media’s” alleged attempt to diminish the sheen of Kerala’s Wayanad disaster response by deliberately disseminating falsehoods about exaggerated government spending.

He alleged that the media falsely insinuated that the government siphoned off disaster funds by inflating the everyday expenses involved in identifying and interring unclaimed bodies and body parts and providing succour to emergency responders, including volunteers, police and defence forces, and running relief camps.

Mr. Vijayan said the misinformation campaign cast doubt in the public mind about the authenticity of the disaster-related expenses incurred by the State when the Centre was supposedly on the cusp of declaring the first tranche of its disaster assistance for the State. Moreover, Kerala’s demand for a special package for Wayanad was pending the Centre’s approval. 

He said the “fake news blitz” dimmed the public’s perception of the government’s integrity and transiently whittled down support for the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

Mr. Vijayan accused the media of accepting a malefic quotation from “anti-Kerala forces” to scuttle Wayanad’s rehabilitation.