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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Two women died, 6 taken ill after ‘consuming’ mango kernel gruel in Odisha
Bhubaneswar/Berhampur/Phulbani, Nov 1: At least two tribal women died and six others fell ill after allegedly consuming mango kernel gruel in Odisha's Kandhamal district, police said on Friday.
Consumption of mango kernel, prepared by boiling the seeds in water, was reported from Mandipanka village in the district's Daringbadi block, an officer said.
While one of the two women (Rasmita Pattamajhi aged 22) died on Thursday night at Mohana community health centre in Gajapati district where she was undergoing treatment after "consuming the gruel", another woman (Runu Majhi aged 29) breathed her last while being taken to MKCG Medical College Hospital in Berhampur, Gadapur sarpanch Kumari Mallick said.
Six others, who fell ill after allegedly consuming the gruel, were admitted to a hospital and their condition was critical, said Dr Subrat Das, a medical officer of the health facility.
"All the six have been admitted to the hospital in a serious condition. We suspected that they fell sick due to food poisoning. The exact cause of the illness will be ascertained after completion of the investigation," he added.
The six were identified as Pravati Patmajhi, Dranglu Patmajhi, Tuni Majhi, Susama Patmajhi, Jita Majhi and Jibanti Majhi, Daringbadi BDO Pritiranjan Ratha said.
Meanwhile, the Odisha government has rejected allegations that tribal people have been consuming mango kernel gruel due to a lack of access to rice under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Rasmita's husband Anil Pattamajhi alleged that they were denied rice under PDS for the last three months because of which his wife consumed mango kernel.
However, Kandhamal district magistrate-cum-collector Amrit Ruturaj dismissed the allegations, saying the family received rice according to PDS norms. "We are awaiting the postmortem report to determine the facts," the collector added.
Deputy chief minister Pravati Parida, who is also in-charge of the women and child development department said, "It is not a case of malnutrition. Mango kernel is part of their (tribal) regular diet. Sometime, the mango kernels get contaminated and lead to such unfortunate incidents. We have been actively spreading awareness about the risks of food contamination."
Health and family welfare minister Mukesh Mahaling, who ordered a departmental inquiry into the death of two tribal women, said a team from the district headquarters hospital and another local team are at the spot to assess the situation and conduct a detailed probe into the incident.
Mahaling said that the government was waiting for the postmortem report for a confirmation on the cause of the deaths. "People in Kandhamal consume mango kernel. It is common in that region and there also have been reports of health complications linked to it in the past," he said.
The Kandhmal incident reminds a similar tragedy involving mango kernel deaths in Kashipur block of Rayagada district, where at least 20 people died in 2001, and two more succumbed to mango kernel consumption in 2016. Additionally, mango kernel has claimed lives in Laxmipur in Koraput district in 2012 and 2013, as well as in Jharigaon in Nabarangpur district in 2018.
