Kerala flood: NGOs step in to help victims
New Delhi, Aug 18: As Kerala battles the worst floods in its recent history, many NGOs have come forward to lend their support to ensuring supply of packaged meals and other relief items to the worst affected areas of the state.
Rise Against Hunger India (RAHI), a renowned International NGO, has associated with many NGOs including Arshabharath, Hope Foundation and the Times Foundation to help the families living in the make-shift relief camps.
Not just food, RAHI is also mobilising other important and essential items like hygiene kits, toiletry, soaps, water containers, utensils, bed sheets, blankets, clothing, water purifier and similar products, which can be utilized by survivors in relief camps.
Save the Children India unit too has come forward to help the victims, especially children, in the flood-affected areas. It will be setting up child-friendly spaces, which provide children with important psycho-social well-being through learning and recreation facilities.
"We will do everything to help children get back to school as quickly as possible once it is safe to do so," Bidisha Pillai, CEO, Save the Children, said.
"We are sending our first lot of meal boxes to Wayanad on Sunday. By next week, more material will be sent to Mundalur in Kannur. Our intention is to provide immediate assistance to the affected families, and once the rains subside, help them get back to their normal lives as soon as possible," Dola Mohapatra, Executive Director, RAHI added.
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Cong performed better in Kerala, anti-incumbency trends influenced WB, TN: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said the Congress had largely met or exceeded expectations in several States, even as results in some regions reflected shifting voter sentiments.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said the party accepted the mandate in Assam while performing better than anticipated in Kerala.
He also pointed to possible anti-incumbency trends influencing outcomes in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
“In Assam, we got the expected result, and we accept the people’s mandate. In Kerala, we have won more seats than expected. We anticipated around 76 to 80, but we have gone up to around 95,” Siddaramaiah said.
In West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, there may have been an anti-incumbency trend, and that could have influenced the results, he added.
Siddaramaiah also extended his congratulations to a new political entrant in Tamil Nadu, noting the emergence of a different electoral dynamic in the State.
“I congratulate the new entrant who has achieved success there,” he added.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said electoral outcomes in some States had diverged from the party’s internal assessments, reflecting evolving voter expectations.
“We expected a certain trend, but the results have been different. Political reading was wrong in some places,” he said.
“People were looking for change in some States, and that has been reflected in the results,” Shivakumar, who is also the Congress Karnataka unit president, said.
Referring to Kerala, he said the Congress-led alliance had benefited from public sentiment.
“There was already an expectation based on local body elections, and people had shown confidence in us. That has translated into a strong result,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.
On Tamil Nadu, he acknowledged that the scale of political shift had come as a surprise.
“We expected to secure around 30 to 40 per cent of the vote share, but such a major shift was not anticipated. It shows that voter expectations were different,” he said.
Shivakumar added that electoral outcomes underscored the need for better political assessment in future.
“We have to understand these changes carefully. Political reading cannot go wrong like this,” he said.
