Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday denied Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim that the state government was warned as early as July 23 regarding a possible natural calamity in Wayanad due to heavy rains.
Speaking to media persons here, Chief Minister Vijayan said the state always gives due consideration to weather warnings. He said that no red alert had been issued before the disaster, with the first red alert coming at 6 am on the morning after the incident.
”An orange alert was only issued for Wayanad district at 1 pm on July 29, and a red alert followed at 6 am on July 30, after the landslide already took place,” said Chief Minister Vijayan.
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“On July 29 at 2 pm, the Geological Survey of India issued a green alert for July 30 and 31, suggesting a possibility of minor landslides or rock bursts. However, by then, the heavy rains had already led to a significant landslide. Moreover, from July 23 to 29, the Central Water Commission, responsible for issuing flood warnings, did not issue any alerts for Iruvazhinji Puzha or Chaliyar rivers,” said the CM.
The Chief Minister further said that it was based on Kerala’s prior request that the NDRF teams were made available at the beginning of the rainy season.
“Kerala raised the demand for nine NDRF teams. The state government had already deployed a team in Wayanad district. Preparations have been made in all areas with advance information about potential floods and other natural calamities, including landslides,” he said.
Stating that this is not the time for a blame game, Vijayan said that he is not taking Shah’s remarks in an adversarial manner.
Earlier on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticized the Kerala government for allegedly failing to act on early warnings issued by the Centre regarding the Wayanad landslides, which wreaked havoc in the hilly district, killing more than 200 people and leaving many homeless.
Speaking in Parliament, Shah said the Centre had issued early warnings to the Kerala government on July 23, 24 and 25 about potential landslides, but the state government did not take sufficient action to relocate people from vulnerable areas.
“The Kerala government should have acted on the Centre’s early warnings and evacuated the residents from high-risk areas. Had they taken timely action, many lives could have been saved,” he said.
The Union Home Minister also said that the Centre, acting on an early warning on potential threat of landslides, had promptly sent nine teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to Kerala to manage the crisis in his direction.
