35 NDRF teams rushed to rain-hit Kerala; 8 more dead

The Centre decided to send 35 more NDRF teams comprising nearly 1,000 personnel to shore up relief and rescue operations in Kerala, where in a latest rain-related incident a massive landslide killed eight people on Thursday morning in Palakkad district.

With this, the death toll in the second spell of monsoon fury since August 8 has risen to 75. There was no let-up in the torrential rains in the state where additional defence teams have also been rushed to aid the rescue and relief operations.

Congress president

Rahul

Gandhi called

Prime

Minister Narendra Modi in the morning and requested him to increase the deployment of Army and Navy in Kerala and give special financial assistance to it. He wrote on Twitter that the state was in “great pain.”

After a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee, the government initially directed sending 12 fresh teams of the federal disaster contingency force to the state and later decided to airlift 23 more teams, NDRF Director General Sanjay Kumar said.

Meanwhile, taking note of the “grave” flood situation in the state, the Supreme Court ordered the disaster management panel of the Mullaperiyar Dam to urgently decide on lowering the water level by three feet to 139 feet.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has written to his Tamil Nadu counterpart E K Palaniswami seeking lowering of the water-level in the dam in the interest of its safety.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi called Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the morning and requested him to increase the aid