Kerala High Court Directs Authorities To Take Immediate, Long-Term Measures To Prevent Flooding In Kuttanad Schools

The Kerala High Court on Thursday (July 31) directed the District Collector, Deputy Director of Education, Principal Agricultural officers, Tahsildars, Panchayat, Padasekhara Samithi and the Executive Engineer to take immediate action for resolving the issue of waterlogging in SNDP Higher Secondary School in Kuttanad district of Alappuzha.A division bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji were considering a suo motu PIL initiated after receipt of a letter from the teachers and students of the aforesaid school regarding flooding and interruption of classes.Earlier, the Court had directed the District Collector to convene a meeting with officers concerned to ascertain the situation described in the letter. Thereafter, a meeting was convened by the Collector on 28th July and certain decisions were taken. Considering the collective decisions made during the meeting on the immediate measures to be undertaken, the Court observed:“The Secretary of the Samithi is directed to compound the water using 4 motors. The executive engineer is directed to inspect the breach areas, identify existing leakages, suggest reinforcement using sandbags, etc. The deputy director of education is directed to report the number of academic days lost due to water logging." The Secretary of Samithi was instructed to hire additional submersible pumps for de-watering. Panchayat was instructed to begin sanitation activities in the de-watered areas.Additionally, the District Collector was directed to ensure that the decisions taken would be fulfilled by the respective officers and the Panchayat and Samithi officials.Noting that it had called upon the District Collector to solve the long-term issue, the Court directed that another meeting should be convened to look into the wider issue as regard the other educational institutions and how to avoid recurrence of similar situations in future. During the course of the proceedings, the amicus curie and additional respondent Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA) also appeared and made submissions before the Court. KeLSA submitted that it had conducted an inspection of the area.Thereafter, the bench orally inquired about the status of water removal from the school. The amicus submitted that as per report of the inspection conducted on 29th July, the buildings are still submerged even though there are four motors running.The government pleader replied that part of the water has been removed and that it would take at least 10 days to remove the whole water subject to weather conditions since it was a large padasekharam. Due to incessant rains, the water rushed through the embankments, it was submitted."Padasekharam" means a collection of field or other areas of lands, with or without a common outer bund, which is suitable for the adoption of a common cultivation programme or common agriculture operations including dewatering and irrigation.“But it appears from the communication that is addressed is that this responsibility of maintaining the bund is on the Samithi which somehow, something somewhere there has been a neglect in maintaining the bund. That is how it is breached…This has happened in this year only; it is not like this is recurring every year. This water logging in this particular school is this year only. It is because of the breach of the bunk. Normal waterlogging due to rains is different, this is because of breach,” the Court orally observed.Considering the submission made that Kuttanad area being below sea-level, this is something that happens occasionally and not frequently, the bench orally remarked, “Something has to be done. This cannot be taken as fact of life also.”The matter is posted to August 11 for further consideration.Case No: WP(PIL) 87/2025Case Title: Suo Motu Proceedings Initiated by the High Court v. State of Kerala and Ors.Amicus Curie: Jithin Saji Isaac Click to Read/Download Order

Kerala High Court Directs Authorities To Take Immediate, Long-Term Measures To Prevent Flooding In Kuttanad Schools

K. Salma Jennath

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