Plan to set up Disaster Response unit in Kerala

Centre was seriously considering setting up a unit of the National Disaster Response Force in Kerala, a Union Minister said today in the wake of the boat tragedy in Thekkady.

Centre was seriously considering setting up a unit of the National Disaster Response Force in Kerala, a Union Minister said today in the wake of the boat tragedy in Thekkady.

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It is only a paramilitary force which would expedite rescue operations in times of a tragedy like the boat capsize, Minister of State for Home Mullapally Ramachandran told reporters after visiting the survivors of the mishap at a hospital in Thekkady.

Thirty-nine people were killed when a boat carrying tourists capsized in a lake in Thekkady on Wednesday.

Presently the Force has only one unit in South India at Arakonam (in Tamil Nadu), he said, adding, the proposal to set up another unit in Kerala was under Centre's active consideration.

Meanwhile, CPIM's Kerala unit in a statement condoled the deaths and asked authorities to take appropriate steps to prevent such accidents in the future.