Wayanad landslides have wiped out 17 families totally: CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said the July 30 landslides that struck four villages in Wayanad wiped out every member of 17 families, totalling 65 people.

"179 bodies have been identified so far. In 17 families, there is not a single member now living and in these families, 65 people lost their lives. A compensation of Rs 6 lakh each to the next of kin of 59 people has been handed over. A sum of Rs 10,000 has been given to 699 families as interim relief. A sum of Rs 10,000 has also been given to each of 172 families for funeral expenses. 199 people continue to be missing and results of the DNA samples test of 91 people are awaited," said Vijayan.

He pointed out that the Wayanad rehabilitation programme is going well. To speed up things, a meeting will be held soon which will be chaired by the Chief Secretary and will be attended by experts and the local people’s representatives, he added.

"Once the meeting is held, then the rehabilitation plan will be finalised... it will happen soon. In the four affected villages, 729 families were moved to various relief camps. At present 219 people are in the camps, while the rest have been moved to rented homes or relatives' houses. The state government will be paying the rent as announced earlier," said Vijayan.

"75 state government quarters in and around the affected areas are now ready and will be allotted to 83 families. Another 177 rented homes are also ready. Another 105 rented homes have also been cleared," he added.

He said the state government had asked the State Level Bankers Committee to take proactive steps to help the victims.

"To bring back the survivors (to their homes), the help of the banking sector is needed as agriculture is the primary vocation. The people have taken various loans and they have lost the most, hence the loans should be written off. The respective director boards of the banks will take the final call. All EMIs which were debited after July 30 will be credited back to the same account. They have said that the loans will be restructured and the reworked EMIs will bring relief, besides fresh loans will also be disbursed quickly. A Rs 25,000 consumption loan without any collateral will soon be sanctioned and it has to be repaid in 30 months. It has also been decided to stop all recovery procedures," Vijayan added.