By Our Special Correspondent
Kalpatta, Aug. 01 (IVC) The number of persons dead in the devastating landslides at Mundukkai and Chooralmala in the Wayand District on July 30, has gone up to 288 till 1400 hours today.
The Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, after attending a all-party meeting here today, said that no live persons are trapped under the debris of the formidable landslides , quoting the military sources who were active in the rescue operations here.
Two hundred and forty persons were to be found out from the Mundukkai and Chooralmala which were leveled by the landslides. The Chief Minister urged the appropriate authorities to declare the landslides in Wayanad as a national disaster as they were formidable.
He said that it was decided to continue the search in the Chaliyar river from where 142 bodies were recovered.
There are 8304 persons in the 82 relief camps installed in the district for the protection of the persons from Mundukkai and Chooralmala and they were continued for some more time, the chief Minister added, the rehabilitation would be held in a good manner.
The education of the students would not be hampered under any circumstances and facilities would be arranged for their existing institutions where they had studied. Media was banned in entering the relief camps, the official sources said.
He said rescue activities in the affected areas were progressing well and if they had any difficulties in continuing the relief work in the area, they would be solved then and there on hearing from the appropriate personnel in this regard. The Chief Minister said that the allegations against the Disaster Relief Force were baseless and hence they deserved for no reply.
