"Rehabillitation is important and this should be declared as a national disaster": Congress Jebi Mather on Wayanad tragedy
Aug 01, 2024
New Delhi [India], August 1 : Two massive landslides had struck Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad in Kerala in the early hours of July 30, causing extensive destruction to lives and injury to hundreds, as per the Kerala Revenue Department.
Congress MP Jebi Mather expressed her grief over the tragedy and said "It is a big tragedy. We are still unable to measure the magnitude of the tragedy. Five to six members from so many families have gone missing. This is a moment we all have to work together for and make sure that we bring back the condition to normal."
Further, she said "We need to take a lesson from this tragedy. Rehabillitation is important and this should be declared as a national disaster. At this moment, I wish to say that the Congress is doing their best to help the affected people."
Earlier today, leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Thursday visited the landslide-affected Chooralmala in Kerala's Wayanad.
Rahul and Priyanka were accompanied by Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal at Chooralmala.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan chaired a high-level meeting today that was attended by leaders of all political parties, state ministers, and other officials. He said that the main priority now is the rescue of the missing persons and rehabilitation will be initiated at the earliest.
"Our focus is to rescue those who were isolated and stranded. I appreciate the efforts of the Army personnel. They have informed us that most of the trapped individuals have been rescued. Bringing down machinery to rescue those trapped under the soil was difficult and building the bridge eased the efforts," CM Vijayan said while addressing the media in Wayanad.
The Chief Minister said that rescue operations will continue in the river to search for missing people and highlighted that the next focus will be on rehabilitation.
