Kerala CM terms baseless, Amit Shah's claim that state didn't heed Centre's calamity warning
Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 31: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday termed as "baseless", Union Home Minister Amit Shah's claim that the state government did not heed the Centre's warning regarding a possible natural calamity in Wayanad due to heavy rains.
Vijayan said that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had only issued an orange alert in the district ahead of the landslides. However, the district received over 572 millimeters of rainfall, which was extremely higher than what was predicted by the IMD.
"In the disaster areas, an orange alert was in place, with the IMD warning that rainfall would be between 115 and 204 mm. However, the actual rainfall was much higher. The area received 200 mm of rain in the first 24 hours and 372 mm in the next 24 hours, totaling 572 mm in 48 hours.
"This far exceeded the initial warning. The area had never been on red alert before the disaster. However, after the incident, a red alert was issued at six o'clock in the morning (of July 30) after the landslides occurred," Vijayan said at a press conference here.
Prior to that, from July 23 to 28, there was no orange alert in Wayanad and only on July 29 was an orange alert issued in that district, he said.
A red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rain of over 20 cm in 24 hours, while an orange alert means very heavy rain (6 cm to 20 cm).
Furthermore, on July 30, the Geological Survey of India, which has established a landslide warning system in Wayanad, issued a green alert for July 30 and 31, indicating a possibility of minor landslides or rock bursts. However, by then, the district had already received very heavy rainfall and landslides had occurred, the CM contended.
Vijayan also said that from July 23 to 29, the Central Water Commission, which is responsible for issuing flood warnings, did not issue any warnings for either Iruvazhinji Puzha or Chaliyar rivers flowing through the affected areas.
"I am not blaming anyone. This is not the time for blame games. But, the Centre needs to understand that climate change has led to significant alterations in our environment and that we need to take proactive steps to address and adapt to these changes.
"The Central government should consider this issue seriously. As part of addressing climate change, effective measures should be taken to prevent the impending disasters. To reiterate, this is not a time for blaming each other. We are currently confronting a disaster, and many people are left in desperate and destitute conditions," he said.
Vijayan also said that it was based on Kerala's prior request, at the beginning of the rainy season, that nine National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were made available to the state and it had deployed one team in Wayanad district.
The CM said that instead of blaming each other, now it was time to rescue those who can be saved, locate those who are buried under debris or were swept away, restore the affected areas and rebuild the villages that were wiped away in the landslides.
After presenting his government's view on the issue, Vijayan said, "So, we can see that what was said in Parliament today was baseless."
Towards the end of his press conference, he also said, "The Union Home Minister has presented information in Parliament that is inconsistent with these facts."
Earlier in the day, Shah, in the Rajya Sabha, claimed that the Kerala government did not heed to the early warning and also did not get alerted even by the arrival of the NDRF battalions in the state.
Shah said an early warning was sent to the state seven days ahead of the July 30 landslide. Another warning was given on July 24 also.
Had the Kerala government got itself alerted and acted as soon as NDRF teams landed there, losses could have been minimised, the Home Minister claimed.
The landslides that occurred in Wayanad on Tuesday have claimed 158 lives till now, with over 200 injured and 191 still missing, according to the district administration.
Over 5,500 people have been rescued from the affected areas and more than 8,000 people, including children and pregnant women, have been relocated to the 82 relief camps in the state, the CM said in the press conference.
Massive landslides triggered by torrential rains struck Mundakkai, Chooralmala, Attamala, and Noolpuzha hamlets in the early hours of Tuesday, killing several people, including women and children.
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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.
