Kerala CM announces compensation for flood-affected
Wayanad (Kerala) Aug 11 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday announced ex-gratia payment of Rs four lakh each to the kin of those who lost their lives in the devastating floods that has hit the state.
The floods have claimed 27 lives so far. The deaths were reported from Idukki, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram districts since the rains came down heavily since Wednesday.
Vijayan made the announcement while presiding over a review meeting called held here to discuss the loss and destruction caused due to the heavy rains over the past four days.
The Chief Minister earlier undertook an aerial survey of the flood-affected districts along with Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, Chief Secretary Tom Jose and Kerala Police Chief Loknath Behra.
After failing to land in Idukki, the team reached Wayanad, where at the meeting he also announced compensation of Rs four lakh each to all those who lost their homes, while those who had lost both their homes and other properties would get Rs 10 lakh.
Each person put up in relief camps would receive Rs 3,800, Vijayan said. Chennithala after the meeting told the media that in Wayanad the need of the hour was medical camps.
Wayanad had come under severe stress on account of the rains that has led to large scale destruction of property due to landslides. Around 10,000 people in the district are languishing in some 200 relief camps.
Vijayan and his team also visited the camps and interacted with the people. They pledged them all help and support. From Wayanad, Vijayan and the team left for Kochi.
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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.
