Amit Shah and Jagdeep Dhankhar
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament on Wednesday that the state government was given advance warning seven days before the devastating landslide in Kerala and nine NDRF teams were also sent there on July 23, but if the state government had become ‘alert’ even after seeing these teams, a lot could have been saved. Shah said this while responding to the clarifications sought by members of various parties on the attention motion brought in the House regarding the situation arising due to the devastating landslide in Wayanad district of Kerala.
‘The warning was ignored’
He expressed condolences to the people who lost their lives in the landslide in Wayanad. He said that during the discussion, many members had raised the issue of early warning system. He said that he wants to tell the whole country through this House that on 23 July, the Government of India had given a prior warning to the Kerala Government. He said that after this warning was given seven days ago, another warning was given on 24 and 25 July and on 26 July it was said that “there will be more than 20 cm and heavy rainfall, there is a possibility of landslide, silt can also flow down, people can die by getting buried under it.”
Shah said that he did not want to say these things in the House but when some members said, “Please listen to us, please listen to us… then we (the government) say, please read it. Please read the warning that has been sent.”
‘Warning was given in Gujarat also, not even a single animal died there’
He said that there have been some state governments in this country who have acted on such advance warnings in the past and have not let anyone get killed in such disasters. He gave the example of the cyclone warning given seven days in advance to the previous Naveen Patnaik government of Odisha and said that only one person died in that cyclone, that too by mistake. Shah said that Gujarat was similarly warned three days in advance about the cyclone and not even a single animal died there.
‘Rs 2000 crore spent on early warning system’
The Home Minister said that the Government of India has spent Rs 2000 crore on the early warning system after 2014 and states are warned seven days in advance. He said that such warnings are put on the website which is also available for MPs. He said, “Some people do not even open the sites here, they just keep opening foreign sites. There will be no early warning from abroad, we will have to look at our site only.” He said that there is a system to give early warning about heat, storm, cyclone, rain and even lightning. He said that some states took advantage of this system and got results.
Read this also-
Could the huge loss in Wayanad have been avoided? Gadgil Committee report came into discussion, know about it
Kerala Health Minister met with an accident before reaching Wayanad, admitted to hospital
Latest India News