Centre announces 100-cr relief for flood-hit Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Terming the flood-situation in Kerala as “very serious”, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced an immediate relief of an additional Rs 100 crore to the rain-ravaged state.

Taking to Twitter, Singh said, “I understand the suffering of the people of Kerala due to this unprecedented crisis. Since assessment of damages will take some time, I hereby announce immediate relief of additional Rs 100 crore.”

Singh had conducted an aerial survey of Idukki and Ernakulam districts along with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, MoS Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam and Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan.

“I would like to assure the state government that all sorts of support will be provided by the Central government to meet the challenges of the flood situation,” he said. The Chief Minister estimated the preliminary loss to be around Rs 8,316 crore.

The Meteorological Department has forecast a heavy to very heavy rain in eight districts for the next four days. The toll in the unprecedented rain, which has lashed the state since August 8, rose to 37, with eight more incidents of drowning reported on Saturday. 

However, the total number of people in relief camps in various districts came down from 53,500 on Friday to 35,874 as a section of the affected people returned home since the flood retreated from many areas.