Leader of Opposition in the 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 Gandhi and Ms Priyanka were accompanied by Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal at Chooralmala.
Two massive landslides struck Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad in the early hours of July 30, causing extensive destruction, loss of lives, and injury to hundreds, as per the Kerala Revenue Department.
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.
"Rescued people are temporarily shifted to camps. Rehabilitation works will be done at the earliest, as we have done in earlier situations too. I request that the media avoid meeting people and shooting inside the camps. You may talk to them outside the camps, it is important to protect the privacy of the individuals," he said.
NDRF DIG Mohsen Shahidi said that over 200 deaths have been declared and bodies were being recovered on Thursday following the landslides in Kerala's Wayanad. He said that there are sufficient teams of central forces in the affected site to undertake the rescue operations.
The Indian Army has ramped up its rescue operations, successfully evacuating several people from affected areas to safety. Troops from the Army's Madras Sappers constructed an improvised 100-foot bridge overnight and opened it to the public. This will further aid the rescue operations and assist in quickly evacuating stranded people.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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