After a marathon discussion lasting nearly eight hours, the Kerala Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution calling upon the Centre to be liberal with financial and policy support for the State’s effort at reconstructing the flood-devastated lives and livelihood of over a million people in the State.

The resolution, moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after a lively debate that touched upon the magnitude of the devastation caused by the unprecedented floods, the government’s handling of the crisis both before and after lakhs got marooned in their homesteads and the massive rescue and relief work with support from far and wide, pointed out that the challenge before the State was not just to ‘rebuild’ but to create a ‘New Kerala’ based on the ‘build back better’ principle.

Noteworthy for its non-combative tone, the resolution hoped that the Centre would go beyond the ₹600 crore already given and adopt appropriate policies to enable the State to secure financial and technical assistance from foreign countries, international institutions such as the U.N. and financial agencies such as the World Bank. It also wanted the Centre to entrust the task of assessing the losses on account of the floods in a scientific manner by an agency which has the support of experts.

The resolution put the number of persons displaced by the floods at 55 lakh. As many as 483 lives were lost, 140 sustained grievous injuries and 14 persons were still missing. Thousands, including hundreds of fishers, youths and Central and State forces, had volunteered to rescue their fellow beings, resulting in 14,50,707 people belonging to 3,91,494 families being saved and moved to 3,879 relief camps. The number of camps had dropped to 305 where only 59,296 people belonging to 16,763 families remained, the resolution said, placing on record the State’s gratitude towards all those who had come to its aid during the crisis.