Congress MPs, MLAs to donate month's salary to flood-hit Kerala
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Congress on Saturday demanded that floods in Kerala should be declared a "national calamity."
All elected representatives of the party would donate one month's salary towards relief efforts in the state, it said.
The decision to donate salaries was taken at a meeting of Congress general secretaries, party in-charges of states, legislative party leaders and state unit chiefs, which was presided over by party chief Rahul Gandhi.
Gandhi had earlier in the day urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately declare the floods in Kerala as "a national disaster."
Briefing reporters after meeting of Congress office-bearers, party communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said the Modi government should come forward to help Kerala where over 180 people have died and property worth over Rs 3,000 crore has been damaged due to floods.
"It was decided that all Congress MPs in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Congress MLAs across India and party MLCs will donate one month's salary, which will be sent through the AICC for relief measures in Kerala," Surjewala said.
He said it was also decided that all Congress governments will come forward to help the people of the state.
Surjewala said Punjab government has already donated Rs 10 crore to the Kerala Relief Fund and JD-S and Congress- government in Karnataka has also donated Rs 10 crore to the relief measures. The government in Puducherry has also donated Rs 1 crore.
He said special relief committees will be formed in adjoining states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu apart from Puducherry. Material collected by Congress workers will be sent to the people of Kerala.
Surjewala said the party also noted with concern the grave situation due to floods in Karnataka and some other parts of the country.
"Modiji should stop discriminating in matters of flood relief. The Prime Minister must rise above party-politics and come forward to help Kerala, Karnataka and other flood-affected states. The Prime Minister should declare Kerala floods as a national calamity," Surjewala said.
Overflowing rivers and a series of landslides in Kerala have resulted in the death of 180 people as of Saturday morning, with over 3 lakh others forced to move to some hundreds of relief camps.
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Siddaramaiah holds emergency meeting with top cops over Kotekar Cooperative Society robbery
Mangaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah convened an emergency meeting with senior police officials in Mangaluru following the robbery at the Kotekar Cooperative Society on K.C. Road, Talapady. He directed authorities to expedite the investigation and apprehend the culprits at the earliest.
The meeting took place after a Medical Education Department program and was attended by Western Zone IG Amit, Mangaluru City Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal, SP Yatish, and DySP.
Seeking a detailed briefing on the incident, Siddaramaiah questioned the officials about how the robbers managed to escape so easily, how many toll gates they crossed, and the lack of security at these checkpoints.
The officials however, conveyed that there was no security officer at the Society’s office at the time of the robbery and only five or six staff members were present at the time of the heist.
Police officials informed the Chief Minister that the suspects were recorded speaking in Kannada and Hindi. Siddaramaiah instructed the authorities to enforce strict checks at all toll gates, impose blockades across four districts borders, and ensure the arrest of the accused for strict legal action.
