Kerala floods: Don’t need food or clothes, need handymen like electricians, plumbers, says KJ Alphons

Help has been pouring in from across the country for Kerala, with several state governments pledging crores in financial assistance and non-government organisations collecting items of basic necessities and sending them to the flood-hit state.

Kerala needs electricians, plumbers, and carpenters more than food or clothes to put life back on track, Union minister KJ Alphons said on Monday, as authorities pushed rescue and rehabilitation operations in the state hit by the worst flood in a century.

KJ Alphons (File Photo)

“There will be no electricity in homes. Carpentry, plumbing would be gone. We need hundreds of thousands of electricians, plumbers, carpenters to rush to Kerala. We don’t need clothes or food. People with technical capabilities are required to put life back into Kerala,” the minister of state for tourism (independent charge) was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Help has poured in from across the country for Kerala, with several state governments pledging crores in financial assistance and non-government organisations collecting items of basic necessities and sending them to the flood-hit state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced a financial package of Rs 500 crore to help Kerala, an offer that his rivals and some in the state’s ruling CPI(M) said was inadequate.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Monday his state would give Rs 3 crore in aid to rain-ravaged Kerala. Telangana deputy chief minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali has decided to donate a month’s salary to the state and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MPs will also give a month’s salary to Kerala chief minister’s distress relief fund, ANI reported.

Rainfall eased on Monday and flood levels have fallen in many districts after a week of fierce downpours and Indian Army helicopters and boats kept up missions to find trapped survivors and drop food and water in isolated villages.