Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that advance warnings on heavy rainfall in Kerala were issued to the State Government at least a week ahead of the deadly landslides in Wayanad that have left a trail of death and destruction.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Government alleged the Central Government agencies like Meteorological Department, Geological Survey of India failed miserably in issuing early warnings about the rainfall and landslides that struck the Wayanad district.
“On July 18, it was forecast that Kerala’s western coast would experience above-normal rainfall. On July 25, it was forecast that there would be heavy rain. On July 23 itself, eight teams of the NDRF were sent to the region,” Shah said. He informed Parliament that the Centre had sent eight teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on July 23 to assist the Kerala Government in the eventuality of any disaster.
“When the landslides struck Wayanad, the NDRF teams got the green signal from the Collector and relief operations were launched immediately,” the Home Minister said.
Shah said about six years ago, experts from IIT-Delhi had suggested relocating people from the landslide-affected areas, but their advice was not heeded to. Even as the death toll in Tuesday’s massive landslides crossed the 200 mark by Wednesday evening, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, reacted to Shah’s statement.
“This is not the time for blame game. There are 91 people undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the district while 240 persons are missing. My Government has put 8,107 people in 82 relief camps in the district. The Meteorological Department had not issued any red alert about the rainfall or landslides. The red alert was issued by the GSI at 6 am on Tuesday hours after the landslide at Mundakkai. The landslides occurred at 2 am and 4.30 am on Tuesday. The Central Water Commission, which is the agency responsible for issuing flood warning, did not issue any such warning,” alleged Vijayan.
He said though the Central agencies had forecast 404 mm rainfall for a period of 48 hours, the region recorded 572 mm rainfall during the period.
The Landslide Warning System of the Geological Survey of India was totally silent about the landslides that would strike the district, alleged the chief minister. Kerala goes by the reports received by the various central agencies and the State had made all arrangements in synch with the warnings and forecasts received by it.
Meanwhile rescue and relief teams drawn from Indian Army, Indian Navy and Coast Guard assisted by IAF are leaving no stones unturned to save life and property in Mundakkai and other areas devastated by landslides and downpour. At the time of going to Press, the district of Wayanad experienced heavy downfall and environmentalists warn about possibilities of more landslides.
John Peruvanthanam, environmental activist stated that the chief minister’s charge that Central agencies did not issue timely warnings should be taken with a pinch of salt. “All of us were reading about the warnings issued by the meteorological departments for days but what has happened is that the State administration did not take it seriously,” said John.
Jayan, a 40 Plus looking laborer working in a plantation at Chooralmala near Mundakkali told reporters that 11 members from his wife’s family were missing. “We identified the body of a child that was recovered from Chaliyar river in Nilambur in Malappuram district as one of my relative’s. We have only got three dead bodies so far and the remaining are still missing,” Jayan , yet to recover from Tuesday morning’s landslides, told reporters. He said most of the houses in Chooralmala were washed off by the gushing boulders “thrown” out because of the landslides.
The Chief Minister asked the people to donate cash to the chief minister’s relief fund and not to send the same to any other agencies. He also asked the people not to send any materials to the landslide affected areas.
In Parliament, Congress and BJP members indulged in a war of words in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday during a Calling Attention Motion on Wayanad landslides issue. BJP MP Tejaswi Surya attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has represented Wayanad, alleging that he never raised the issue of landslides in his constituency. His remarks led to protests by Congress members forcing Speaker Om Birla to briefly adjourn the proceedings.
When the House resumed proceedings, Congress MP KC Venugopal asserted that as Wayanad MP, Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue of eco-sensitive Wayanad on several occasions. He claimed that Surya was trying to sabotage the debate and he will have to apologise for making “false claims” about the Congress leader. “House records will prove that Rahul Gandhi has raised the issue several times,” Venugopal said.
