Situation In Flood-Affected Kerala ‘Very Serious’: Rajnath Singh

Kochi: Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday made an aerial survey of two rain-ravaged districts of Kerala and said the situation in the state was “very serious”.

He assured the state government of all help from the Centre to meet the challenges posed by the unprecedented floods.

The minister was speaking to reporters at the airport here after conducting the aerial survey of Idukki and Ernakulam districts.

“Today we conducted an aerial survey of flood affected areas with the Chief Minister and I reached the conclusion that the situation is very serious in Kerala due to floods,” Singh said.

“And I would like to assure the state government that all sorts of support will be provided by the central government to meet the challenges of the flood situation,” he added.

Singh was speaking in the presence of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, union minister Alphons Kannanthanam, who arrived with him from Delhi, state revenue minister E Chandrasekharan and senior state government officials.

He also heard the grievances of people who lost their homes and land in the floods.

After a brief lull, rain started lashing several parts of Kerala since Sunday morning, posing problems to the relief operations undertaken by multiple agencies in the flood and landslides hit regions.

However, the water level in the Idukki and Idamalayar reservoirs reduced, bringing some relief, with the authorities saying there was no need for any panic for people living downstream, officials said.

There were no fresh casualties reported since yesterday and the toll in the rain-related incidents since the current monsoon fury from August 8 stood at 37, they said.

More than 60,000 people have been accommodated in relief camps set up in different areas, including in Wayand where over 14,000 people had been sheltered.

Ten columns of Army, a unit of Madras Regiment along with personnel of Navy, Air Force and the NDRF were engaged in relief and rescue operations in badly-hit districts including Kozhikode, Idukki, Malappuram, Kannur and Wayanad, Defence sources said.

Mananthavady and Vythiri in the hilly Wayanad district have been totally cut-off, with roads washed away and houses marooned by water.

Water level in the Idukki dam, the biggest arch dam in Asia which was opened after a gap of 26 years, marginally declined to 2399.16 ft at 10 am today, after hovering close to its maximum of 2,403 feet in the past few days, officials said. (PTI)