The national crisis management committee chaired by cabinet secretary P.K. Sinha met on Thursday to review and scale up the rescue and relief operations in flood hit Kerala. For proper reservoir management in Mullaperiyar Dam, the Cabinet Secretary has constituted a Committee chaired by Chairman, Central Water Commission and Engineers-in-Chief of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, said an official statement .
On Thursday, twelve more teams of the national disaster response force are being airlifted from Delhi and Ahmedabad on the urgent request of the state government.
Earlier in the day, secretaries of ministries of Defence, Home, Water Resources and Chiefs of Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Member, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC) discussed with the cabinet secretary the evolving situation in Kerala where rescue and relief operations are being scaled up.
The Cabinet Secretary directed that relief materials, including supply of drinking water, dry food packets and powdered milk should also be made available to Kerala on a war-footing. Additional manpower and equipment is being mobilised as rescue teams are finding it difficult to manoeuvre in the villages where water-logging has made it difficult for the rescue teams to reach.
Officials involved in the rescue operations said that “the situation is bad” and there is water-logging in rural areas where it is taking time to assist the affected people. The NDRF has evacuated more than 3,000 people while 1200 have been rescued. Besides boats and life buoys, the rescue forces have roped in additional deep sea divers to assist those who may face drowning.
The NCMC held a video conference with the Kerala chief secretary and his team where it was decided that the meeting will be held daily to take stock of the situation.
As of now, 18 teams of NDRF, 9 columns and 8 teams of Engineering Task Force (ETC) of the Army, 22 teams of Coast Guard, 24 diving teams of Navy along with helicopters, aircrafts, boats, equipment, life buoys and life jackets, are already assisting Kerala in rescue operations as well as evacuation of stranded people. Besides this, medical assistance is also being provided by NDRF, Army, Navy including in special medical camps.