Rajnath to conduct aerial survey of flood-hit Kerala on Sunday
New Delhi, Aug 11: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will conduct an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in Kerala on Sunday, a Ministry statement said on Saturday.
The Union Minister will be accompanied by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism K. J. Alphons and other senior officers from the Ministry.
He will also review the search, rescue and relief measures taken by the state government and other Central Government agencies with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ministers of the state government, Chief Secretary and other senior officers of the Central agencies and state administration.
During the current south-west monsoon season, various parts of Kerala have been reportedly affected by heavy rains and rain oriented calamities, said the statement.
It said at least 14 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams consisting of 404 rescuers and 31 boats have already been deployed in various parts of flood-hit areas including Thrissur, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Wayanad, Kozhikode and Idukki districts.
The teams will assist the state administration in the relief and rescue operation as well as distribution of essential relief material and provide medical support to affected people at the time of emergency.
So far, NDRF teams have rescued seven people and evacuated 398 others and 12 livestock.
In view of possible inundation, NDRF teams are kept on standby in vulnerable locations and are keeping close vigil over the development of situation, said the statement, adding that "additional teams are also kept at standby at nearest NDRF battalion in Arakkonam and shall be mobilized, if required. Director General of NDRF, Sanjay Kumar, is supervising the ongoing rescue operations".
"Besides the NDRF, adequate columns of Army, Navy and Coast Guard, Helicopters of Indian Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard are deployed in the state for assisting the state administration in lifting and dropping of essential commodities," the statement added.
The northern and central parts of the state have been battered by heavy rains since August 8, causing one of the worst floods in its history.
The floods have claimed at least 29 lives across the state in the last 36 hours, leaving over 54,000 homeless.
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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.
