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Tamil Nadu CM announces ₹3 lakh each for Kerala landslide victims, they were Tamils
The landslide dumped a massive mound of earth and slush on 20 one-room of tea plantation workers on August 7.
Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami has announced ex-gratia of ₹three lakh each to kin of the 62 deceased in the Rajmala landslide incident in Kerala’s Idukki earlier this month. He also announced a financial assistance of ₹one Lakh each for the severely injured in the incident, reported news agency ANI. Bodies of 62 people have been found so far from the muddy rubble left by the landslide that took place in Kerala’s Idukki on Aug 7.
All the victims were from families of Tamil settlers who had relocated from Tamil Nadu three to four generations ago and worked at Rajmala as tea plantation workers in the neighbouring state of Kerala.
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Apart from the assistance announced by Palaniswami, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has announced an ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh to kin of the deceased and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh each to the victims.
Four more bodies have been found in the last 24 hours from the landslide site in search operations that have continued since August 7 when torrential rains led to the disaster. Three bodies were found in the search operations carried out in Pettimudi, Rajamala landslide area.
Nine more persons are to be traced after they were reported missing since the landslide.
The Kerala government has promised to rehabilitate the families affected by the Pettimudi, Rajamala landslide.
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Earlier, the district Information Office said that two NDRF teams, a full unit of Idukki fire and rescue team, a team each from Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, and a team which received special training are leading the rescue operations in Idukki’s Rajamala.
Two Ground Penetrating Radars (GPR)s from Chennai along with a four-member team joined the search operations by Tuesday afternoon, Idukki collector H Dineshan told PTI.
The radars have been brought from the Institute of Oceanography, he said.
