Wayanad landslides: those who remain missing are to be declared dead

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government issued an order announcing that those missing in the Wayanad Chooralmala-Mundakkai landslide will be declared dead. The order mandates the formation of two committees, a local committee and a state-level committee, to provide financial assistance to the disaster survivors. The local committee will first prepare a list of the dead.

The government intends to consider the missing as dead, provide compensation to their immediate kin, and provide other assistance. The immediate kin will be provided with death certificates, and then the process will begin to make their families eligible for financial assistance, housing and other assistance. The local committee will consist of the village officer, panchayat secretary and police station SHO.

Even after four months since the Chooralmala-Mundakkai landslides, 32 people are yet to be found, and police have registered an FIR regarding them. Assistance to the families of the missing persons was also a major need of the victims.

In December last week, exactly five months after the Wayanad landslide killed around 254 people, the Union government on Monday deemed the incident a disaster of "severe nature" for all practical purposes.

Tinku Biswal, the Kerala government's senior secretary of revenue and disaster management, was informed of the decision by Rajesh Gupta, a joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs. On the other hand, no specific governmental fund is mentioned.

Using its authority under the national disaster management authority, the state asked the Centre last month to provide additional financial relief and waive the loans of those affected by the tragedy, TNIE reported.

The state administration asked for Rs 2,262 crore for the restoration package, estimating that the calamity had cost Rs 1,202 crore.