Addressing mediapersons on the relief and rescue operations in the state, the Kerala Chief Minister further said that the government had decided to recommend to the Governor to convene a special session of the Assembly on 30 August to discuss relief rehabilitation and reconstruction of Kerala.
This comes three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the coastal state to take stock of the situation, announced a relief of Rs 500 crore to aid relief and rescue operations. This was in addition to the Rs 100 crore aid announced by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh last week.
The Centre has also declared the floods in Kerala as a ‘calamity of severe nature’. ‘Keeping in view the intensity and magnitude of the floods and landslides in Kerala, this is a calamity of a severe nature for all practical purposes,’ a Home Ministry official had said in New Delhi on Sunday.
The Chief Minister has confirmed that a total of 223 people have died due to the flood situation in the state, even as more than one million people have been sheltered in over 3200 relief camps across the state.
As per preliminary estimates, the state has so far suffered a loss of nearly Rs 20,000 crore.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties have asked the central government to allocate more funds for the rescue and relief operations in Kerala. Demanding that the Kerala floods be declared a national disaster, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had recently said that Rs 500 crore additional relief was nowhere near enough.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Kerala is not expected to receive heavy rain for the next four days. It has expected that the rescue operations will be more efficient during these days. The Indian Railways has also begun train services partially in the state.