Just 2 wards, not entire Wayanad: BJP leader trivializes landslides
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Thiruvananthauram: BJP leader and former Union Minister of State V Muraleedharan made a controversial remark trivializing the Wayanad Mundakai-Churalmala landslide.
Muraleedharan said that the emotional argument that an entire region was washed away is wrong and that only three wards in two panchayats were destroyed in the landslide.
Following his problematic comments, there has been widespread protest against Muraleedharan's remarks.
T Siddique MLA demanded that Muraleedharan should withdraw the statement and apologize. He said that the people of the affected wards were also human beings. He added that the BJP leader’s statement insulted those who died in the disaster.
CPM leader CK Saseendran also said that Muraleedharan’s comments insulted the victims of the disaster and that such statements could not be entertained. He reminded that it was the biggest tragedy that had happened in Wayanad. He said that Kerala is the land of Malayalis, where BJP members also live, and Muraleedharan should apologize to the Malayalis.
While answering questions related to central assistance to Wayanad for rehabilitation after the deadly landslides, Muraleedharan made the problematic comments at a press conference that one should not say that the entire region has been washed away.
Muraleedharan claimed that the Kerala government is demanding Rs 214 crore when it already has Rs 788 core in its hands. He said that when the state government has around Rs 800 crores in hand, it is arguing that the Centre has not given anything.
It was only recently that the Centre announced that it could not declare Wayanad landslides as national disasters. Announcing this, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said that the Centre cannot declare the devasting and deadly landslide as per the SDRF and NDRF criteria. He pointed out that as per the Accounts General, the State Disaster Response Fund has Rs 394 crore left.