New Delhi, July 31 (UNI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said in the Rajya Sabha that the Kerala government was given advance warning of heavy rains and landslides on July 23, a week before the Wayanad accident, but necessary action was not taken.
Intervening in the discussion on the calling attention motion in the House regarding “the situation arising out of the devastating landslide in Wayanad district of Kerala”, Shah said that this is not the time for allegations and counter-allegations and in this hour of crisis, the Central Government is fully supporting the Kerala Government and stands unitedly with the people there.
When the members participating in the discussion, mentioned that the questions were repeatedly raised on the early warning system, he said that since 2016, the country has a state-of-the-art early warning system for disasters like heavy rain, heatwave, storm and lightning.
Based on the information received from this system, advance warning is sent a week in advance and in the case of Kerala, first advance warning of heavy rainfall and landslides was sent to the state government on 23rd July and then on 25th and 26th July.
The Home Minister said that many states have greatly reduced the loss of life and property by acting on these warnings and Gujarat and Odisha are examples of this.
He added that the government has spent Rs 2000 crore for this system.
Shah said that this information is sent a week in advance and is also uploaded on the Meteorological Department’s site so that everyone is alerted.
Amidst disruption by the members, the Minister said that politics should not be done in this matter. In view of the prior warning, the Central Government had sent nine teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to Kerala on July 23 itself. He said that despite this, the state government didn’t paid heed to the alert and questioned why people were not sent to safe places.
If they had been sent to safe places in time then there would not have been deaths. He said that people have been evacuated from there after the disaster.
Shah said that states have the right to spend ten percent of the amount from the State Disaster Fund without permission. The remaining 90 percent amount has to be spent as per the guidelines of the Central Government and no approval is required for this.
He said that an amount of more than Rs 6,000 crore has been sanctioned for West Bengal, and alleged that the state government does not give account of this expenditure.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, while replying to the discussion, said that as soon as the Prime Minister and the Home Minister got information about this incident, they contacted the state government and started providing assistance. He said that till now rescue workers have recovered 133 bodies and this number may rise.
He further said that the Prime Minister is constantly monitoring the situation.
