NEW DELHI, Aug 4: More than a 1,000 government employees are currently engaged in disaster management and relief operations in the landslide-ravaged regions in Wayanad district, the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office said on Sunday.
The 24×7 activities are being coordinated by the Civil Station at Kalpetta and the temporary control room opened at Chooralmala. Mobilised under 15 teams, the government staff are handling the coordination of the search and rescue effort, collection and distribution of relief materials, food and medicines, counselling, management of the technical teams, relief camps and landslide victims with medical conditions, collation of information of victims who are still missing, proper waste disposal and data management.
“Specially-assigned teams are handling matters related to the bodies recovered from the landslide-hit regions,” the CMO said. This includes their identification and hand-over to family members and cremation of unclaimed bodies and the paperwork related to autopsies. “Government departments dealing with the disaster management and rescue operations are filing daily reports to the State government,” Mr Vijayan’s office said.
(Manas Dasgupta)