Kerala rains: 35 NDRF teams sent as ops scaled up

The Centre today decided to send 35 more NDRF teams comprising nearly 1,000 personnel to shore up relief and rescue operations in rain-battered Kerala.

After the meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) early in the day, the government initially directed sending 12 fresh teams of the federal disaster contingency force to the state and later decided to airlift 23 more teams in order to scale up the operations.

"The first 12 teams will reach Kerala by this evening. The rest 23 teams are being sent gradually. The teams have been equipped for assisting the state government authorities in launching quick relief, rescue, medical aid and food distribution tasks in both day time and at night," NDRF Director General Sanjay Kumar told PTI.

He said the first 12 teams are being airlifted from Ghaziabad (6) and Vadodara (6) in Gujarat.

"The 18 teams already present in Kerala are engaged in relief and rescue operations on a war footing," the DG said.

An NDRF spokesperson said the 23 other teams are being sent from Patna (Bihar), Haringhata (West Bengal), Mundali (Odisha) and Bathinda (Punjab).

"These teams are ready to be airlifted as soon as they get aircraft," the spokesperson said.

More units have been put on operational readiness to be sent at a short notice to Kerala, he said.

He added that NDRF teams today evacuated a total of 707 persons from Pathanamthitta (172), Ernakulam (151), Kozhikode (99), Alapuzha (202) and Thrissur (83) till the last report came.

"Evacuation operation is still in progress at these locations," the spokesperson said.

The 18 operational teams are deployed in the districts of Thrissur and Pathanamthitta (3 teams each), Ernakulum, Alappuzha, Wayanad and Kozhikode (2 teams each) and Idukki (4 teams).

One National Disaster Response Force team has about 35 personnel.

The enhanced deployment of the force comes after the country's apex body to handle emergency situations decided to scale up relief and rescue operations in the state by roping in the three services of the armed forces and other agencies, besides providing essential commodities to marooned people in 14 worst-affected districts.

At the meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and attended by chiefs of the three services, secretaries of home, defence and others, the NCMC took stock of the prevailing situation in Kerala and directed all concerned to ensure continued assistance to the state government to meet the crisis, a home ministry spokesperson said.

There has been no let-up in the torrential rains in the state which have claimed 75 lives since August 8. A massive landslide killed eight people in Palakkad district of Kerala this morning.

Panic-stricken people in marooned buildings and high-rise flats sought help using social media platforms and patients, including those in ICUs, from various hospitals were shifted to safer places.