Centre will examine legality of demands to declare Wayanad landslides a national disaster: Gopi
Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Union Minister Suresh Gopi on Sunday said that the Centre will examine the legality behind the demand from various quarters to classify as a national disaster the landslides that hit this north Kerala district and killed hundreds.
Gopi, who is Union Minister of State for Tourism, Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that the Central government will "examine its legal aspects" after carrying out an evaluation of the landslides which wiped away hundreds of homes in Mundakkai and Chooralmala areas of the district.
"The impact has to be studied," he said.
The Union MoS was speaking to reporters after arriving in Wayanad to visit the landslides-hit areas where he interacted with the rescue personnel on various aspects of the ongoing search operations.
He said that he will put forth before the Central government everything he saw and understood after visiting the disaster-hit areas.
With regard to the assistance to be provided by the Centre to Kerala, Gopi said that the state has to assess the impact of the landslides and make a request.
"The state has to inform the Centre. Only thereafter can anything be said on providing assistance," he said.
The actor-cum-politician also said that as part of the rehabilitation of the survivors, counselling should also be provided to them in view of the tragedy they have suffered.
According to the figures released by the district administration, 219 bodies and over 154 body parts have been recovered with around 206 persons still missing.
Stepping up the rescue operations, hundreds of personnel from various forces, including the NDRF, K-9 Dog Squad, Army, Special Operation Group, Madras Engineering Group, Police, Fire Force, Forest Department, Navy, and Coast Guard were deployed in the disaster-hit areas of Wayanad.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
