NEW DELHI: The Centre and the Kerala Government were locked in a war of words as the death toll in the devastating landslides in Wayanad district of Kerala rose to 167 on Wednesday, while 191 are still missing even as rescue teams intensified efforts to find survivors trapped under the debris on the second day of the search operations.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Kerala Government was warned as early as July 23 regarding a possible natural calamity in Wayanad due to heavy rain. However, the state government did not heed the early warning. It also did not get alerted even by the arrival of battalions of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Shah said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan refuted Shah’s remarks, terming these baseless and saying the rain warning was way off the mark and the “red alert” came after the Wayanad tragedy had occurred. This “is not the time for a blame game”, said Vijayan, who was quoted by news agencies as saying, “What was stated in Parliament is not true”. The NDRF was sent, “but the fact is that we asked for it”.
Shah said the Narendra Modi government was standing like a “rock” with the Kerala Government and people of the state in this moment of tragedy. He also promised all help from the Centre.
Intervening in a short-duration calling attention motion on the Wayanad landslide tragedy in the Upper House, Shah said an early warning was sent to the state seven days ahead. Another warning was given on July 24. “Nine NDRF battalions were dispatched on July 23 itself and three more were sent on July 30,” Shah said.
Had the Kerala Government been on alert and had it acted as soon as NDRF teams landed there, the losses could have been minimised, the Home Minister said. In Kerala, Vijayan indicated that it was a case of too little, too late. “The predictions never mentioned a red alert in the affected area. In fact, the red alert came on Tuesday at 6 am, while the tragedy occurred several hours earlier.”
Kerala Chief Minister Vijayan said, “The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted 115 mm to 204 mm rainfall in the affected area. However, in the first 24 hours itself, the area received 200 mm rainfall, while in the next 24 hours, it received 372 mm rainfall, making it a staggering 572 mm in 48 hours much more than what was predicted. So with these being the facts, I wish to state that this is not the time for wrangling.”