Kerala floods show Modi has his priorities wrong

Kerala Floods - The worst flooding in more than a century has left hundreds dead, hundreds of thousands homeless, billions of dollars of losses and the lingering risk of disease in Kerala. Blame the monsoon, or rickety infrastructure?

Pinning down the cause of the disaster is important in assessing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s spending priorities as he heads into an election year. India’s Budget certainly needs an overhaul.

While the Kerala downpours were unusually heavy, most of the damage was done after the sluice gates of brimming dams were opened to release water into parts of the southwestern coast that were already on the verge of inundation. The flooding itself is no surprise: Almost 15 per cent of India’s land mass is prone to floods and every year, on average, as many as 2,000 lives are lost and up to 8 million hectares (20 million acres) affected, at a cost of Rs 18 billion ($258 million).