Thiruvananthapuram: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the landslide-hit areas in Wayanad on Saturday, the Ministry of Home Affairs has formed a nine-member team to evaluate the extent of severity of the destruction caused by the natural disaster.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said the state was expecting a favourable decision from the Prime Minister on extending the Centre's assistance for rehabilitation of the landslide survivors. The state has already requested the Union government to declare the Wayanad landslides as a national disaster.
While the army and navy began the process of ending search operations in a phased manner from Thursday, the state government has decided to carry out further search with the aid of the local people on Friday. Those who are willing will be taken to the place where their houses were located and rescue workers will carry out searches with their aid.
So far, 225 bodies and 195 body parts belonging to the victims have been recovered. The number of missing persons is 131. There are chances of body parts of the same person being recovered from different spots hence, DNA examination of all body parts are being done.
CM Vijayan also said that the government plans to continue with the searches. He also hailed the search ops by defence forces and other agencies.
Vjayan said that 91 government quarters had so far been identified for temporarily rehabilitating the survivors until a permanent rehabilitation arrangement is put in place. "A total of 641 families comprising 1,942 members are now in relief camps. All of them need to be provided temporary rehabilitation immediately," he said.
Published 08 August 2024, 14:48 IST