Kerala Chief Minsiter Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the state government would recruit global expertise, state-of-the-art and future-proof climate-resilient technologies, and enlist top environmental architects to build a model township for the landslide victims in Wayanad. He has ensured that the government would invest heavily in this project, and claimed that several businesses and altruistic entities have come forward to help.
CM Vijayan has said that the PWD would remove unsafe structures in the disaster zone and rebuild destroyed village roads. He said the State’s Relief Commission would brief the Central Inter-Ministerial team about the Wayanad situation.
Mr Vijayan said service providers would visit survivors at relief camps and hospitals and restore their lost mobile phone connections and devices. He said the government would restore lost academic certificates and revenue documents. He also declared free power and rations for people in 11 wards falling under the disaster zone.
“The government plans to rehabilitate the victims in a comprehensive way. Good planning and labour are needed for completing that task in a speedy way. A large populated area completely disappeared there. Discussions have begun at the administrative level to build a safer new township at a new place.,” CM Vijayan said.
Urge to Improve the Disaster Prediction
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged the weather agencies to make the weather prediction more specific and accurate. He said that the weather prediction models should be made more contemporary, location-specific, and accurate so that disaster mitigation measures can kick in early to save lives.
“Majority of these tragedies are happening due to high intense rains which the warning agencies are unable to warn in advance. Currently, the experts are relying on global databases and parameters to predict the quantity of the rainfall. But what’s happening is that high intense rains occur”, he said.
He said, “India Meteorological Department, Central Water Commission and Geological Survey of India have been issuing alerts on adverse weather conditions and natural calamities. All the agencies should opt for modern methods. We should conduct a detailed probe and examination to identify the reason behind the disaster in Wayanad. Institute For Climate Change Studies in Kottayam would be instructed to prepare Kerala model criteria on excessive rainfall. Necessary facilities for the same will be provided to the centre.”
Use of Technology is Rescue Mission
The Chief Minister informed that a total of 10042 people were housed in 93 relief camps in the district. At the same time, he added that search operations are continuing under the army, navy, NDRF, Fire Force, Forest department and various volunteers in landslide-hit regions as well as Chaliyar river.
An advanced machine called human search radar which can detect the presence of human trapped in 15-ft-depth was taken to the site on Friday. A drone-based radar will be taken from Delhi on Saturday.
As per the official records, 216 bodies were recovered, but the unofficial records show 340 people were killed. The Chief Minister said that 206 people are yet to be traced.
A total of 67 unidentified bodies are currently kept at the mortuary. CM has given directions to the panchayat authorities to cremate these bodies after conducting an all-religion prayer meet. Meanwhile, 81 injured people including 34 women, 36 men and 11 children are currently undergoing treatment. A total of 206 people were discharged from hospitals and shifted to relief camps.
