Kerala accused of ignoring Wayanad landslide warnings; Privilege notice against Amit Shah
New Delhi: Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP V Sivadasan has filed a privilege notice in the Rajya Sabha accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of misleading Parliament about Kerala's response to warnings preceding the recent landslides in Wayanad.
At least 256 people have died and nearly 220 are missing after heavy rains caused two landslides in the Meppadi area on Tuesday, as reported by Kerala Health Minister Veena George.
In Parliament, Shah claimed that the Kerala government ignored several warnings issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on July 23, 24, and 25. He also noted that nine National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were dispatched on July 23, with three additional units sent on Tuesday.
Kerala's government has disputed Shah's assertions, stating that the warnings did not meet the threshold for a red alert, which signifies "heavy to extremely heavy rain" exceeding 200 millimeters in 24 hours. Instead, an orange alert was in place, indicating "very heavy rain" between 60 to 200 millimeters, which was later surpassed by actual rainfall totaling 572 millimeters in 48 hours.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticized Shah’s comments as inappropriate during the crisis. Health Minister Veena George labeled Shah’s statements as "unfortunate and misleading," emphasizing that the district administration acted based on the orange alert issued.
In response to the disaster, rescue operations led by the Army have saved nearly 1,000 people, with 8,304 currently sheltered in 82 relief camps. CM Vijayan has arrived in Wayanad to oversee the situation and is scheduled to meet with local leaders. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are also expected to visit the relief camps.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has urged Shah to recognize the landslides as a "calamity of severe nature" under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme to facilitate additional support for the affected region. Tharoor emphasized the need for a coordinated response to address the scale of the disaster.
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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.
