Wayanad Landslides: Landslide after heavy rain in Kallady, NDRF busy searching for 7 missing people; Priyanka Gandhi expressed grief
Wayanad. Following the massive landslide that occurred near the Kallady Tunnel Project in Kerala’s Wayanad district on Monday, the district administration has started evacuating families living around the affected area to safe places as a precautionary measure from Tuesday. The rescue operation has been intensified to search for seven people missing under the debris amid continuous heavy rains in the area.
According to officials, the Kallady-Meppadi road has been completely blocked due to the landslide. To protect themselves from any possible danger, residents of the nearby colony are being evacuated and accommodated in temporary relief camps set up in Meppadi.
Rescue operation continues on war footing
Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Fire and Rescue Services, police, forest department personnel and local citizen volunteers are jointly engaged in rescue operations at the landslide site. Six people injured in this accident have been admitted to the hospital for treatment. The search operation is continuing due to the possibility of more people being trapped under the debris.
MLA I.C. Balakrishnan, Wayanad District Panchayat President Chandrika Krishnan and District Collector D.R. were present at the incident site. Many public representatives and officials including Meghashree are themselves present and monitoring the rescue operations. At the same time, Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan reached the office of Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) and took a high-level review of the situation. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has also issued strict instructions to speed up the rescue operation.
Landslide occurred outside active construction area: Engineer
The engineers posted at the project site clarified that in view of the upcoming monsoon, no tunnel digging work was being done since June 12. Only work related to strengthening and security of the tunnel was going on there. At the time of the accident, about 15 workers were engaged in the construction of a mesh protection wall (gabion wall) made of stones at the designated debris disposal site.
An on-site engineer said, “The landslide did not originate from the tunnel or the active construction area. The incident took place within seconds on the leftmost slope, outside the designated construction boundary, and the debris rapidly moved towards the Meenakshi bridge.” The technical team deployed on the other side of the Meenakshi bridge came out safely, but due to the sudden strong flow of debris, many other people and an office running there got hit.
Congress stands with the victims at every step: Priyanka Gandhi
Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has expressed deep grief over the landslide in Kerala. He said that relief operations are being carried out on a war footing to rescue the people trapped under the debris and the Chief Minister of the state himself is monitoring it.
Expressing her deep condolences to the families who lost their loved ones in the accident, Mrs. Vadra said, “In this difficult time, Congress stands strongly with the victims and will provide all possible assistance.” He wished for the safe recovery of the missing people and appealed to United Democratic Front (UDF) workers, officials and common citizens to cooperate in providing assistance to the victims without any hindrance by following the guidelines of the administration.
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